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Tom Scaletta, MD, medical director of a high-volume community hospital in a Chicago suburb, says that his interest in calling back emergency medicine patients began a decade ago when he created and implemented programs in two high-volume EDs that he directed. "I staffed the position with dedicated clerks who attempted to reach every discharged patient," he says.
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During past medical malpractice crises, many states established "patient compensation funds" to provide accessible and affordable medical liability insurance to health care providers.
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Injuries of the hand and wrist present significant clinical challenges to the trauma practitioner because of the complex structures involved and the possibility of occult disruptions.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of mortality in the United States and represents over half of trauma related deaths.
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In the past nine months, the world has witnessed the outbreak of not one but two waves of pandemic influenza due to a new virus of swine origin. World public health authorities moved quickly to contain what appeared initially to be the severe pandemic that had been anticipated for so long.
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If your patient tells you he's had asthma since he was a teenager, don't assume that he must already know how to self-manage his condition.
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(Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on prevention of hospital-acquired infections in the ED. This month, we give strategies to improve compliance with hand hygiene, tips for cleaning the equipment you use and tell you how to determine if your patient has arrived at the ED with an infection. Last month, we covered avoiding infections when invasive procedures are performed, reducing the risk of infection with peripheral IV insertion, using alternatives to invasive procedures, giving central-line education to ED nurses, and decreasing the use of central lines and urinary catheters.)
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If a patient comes to your ED with a pre-existing infection that goes unnoticed, the insurer likely will to refuse to pay for treatment because it will presume wrongly that the condition was acquired in the hospital.
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With an expanded treatment window of 4.5 hours, more of your stroke patients are eligible for treatment with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Minutes still count, however.
