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The number of lawsuits involving mid-level providers (MLPs) in the ED "seems to have skyrocketed in the last few years," according to Michael Blaivas, MD, FACEP, FAIUM, professor of emergency medicine at Northside Hospital Forsyth in Cumming, GA. "There are multiple scenarios that result in successful suits, and there is a common theme among them."
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A 28-year-old man was given an immediate EKG when he told ED nurses at Parkland Health & Hospital Systems in Dallas that he felt like someone was "holding my chest tight, like a band around my chest."
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As an ED nurse was inserting a urinary catheter in a young man who had been critically injured in a motor vehicle collision, the trauma surgeon was watching closely.
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If a patient's only complaint is dizziness, stroke may not be the first thing you think of, but patients with vertebral artery occlusion may present this way, says Karen Bergman, RN, neuroscience coordinator at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, MI.
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When a woman reported depression, migraines, and slurred speech over a period of months to Casie McMaster, RN, an ED nurse at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Louis, MO, she reviewed her patient's home medications.
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When patients with shortness of breath received either a partial or a full standing order set, their median treatment time decreased by 40 minutes, according to a study done at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.
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A five-year-old boy with a fever and rash was about to be admitted to the in-patient pediatric unit at Children's Hospital Boston for dehydration and infection.
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While no one has precise numbers, the practice of human trafficking is hardly limited to third-world countries. In fact, experts maintain it is big business in the United States, with somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people trafficked into the country each year.
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It's a problem that every ED grapples with: A patient comes in complaining of chronic pain and you give him or her a one-time prescription for a powerful narcotic with instructions to seek comprehensive treatment from a primary care provider (PCP).
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Emergency departments tend to be noisy, bright, and intensely focused on patient throughput.