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New rules put forth by the bush administration that took effect on Nov. 10 significantly relax strictures in the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) that required hospitals and some hospital-owned clinics to examine and treat people who need emergency medical care even when those patients cant pay.
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Using a universal consent form for multiple procedures anticipated for a patient can nearly double the consent rate for most of the invasive procedures performed in an intensive care unit, according to researchers in Chicago. But observers say the tactic may violate the spirit of the informed consent process.
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The universal consent form described eight commonly performed procedures: placement of an arterial catheter, a central venous catheter, a pulmonary artery catheter, a peripherally inserted central catheter, lumbar puncture, thoracentesis (surgical puncture through the chest wall with drainage of fluid from the thoracic cavity), paracentesis (surgical puncture through the abdominal wall with drainage or aspiration of fluid from the abdominal cavity), and intubation/mechanical ventilation.
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A patient daily goals checkoff form used twice daily during rounds has helped the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) team at Hartford (CT) Hospital achieve a 25% drop in its mortality rate, while cutting lengths of stay and ventilator days.
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The FDA has approved Pfizer's eplerenone (Inspra) for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF) in patients who have sustained a myocardial infarction.
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Britains National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), which provides guidance to health professionals, patients and the public on best practices in medicine, last month recommended the use of drug-eluting stents in patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease. NICE recommended that drug-eluting stents be used in all patients at high risk of restenosis caused by the body overreacting to the insertion of a coronary stent with an inflammatory response and tissue growth. Such high-risk patients include those with naturally smaller arteries or in whom a longer section of the artery is blocked.
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American Healthways (Nashville, Tennessee) signed a three-year agreement with Horizon Healthcare Services (HHS; Newark, New Jersey), and its subsidiary, Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey, to provide the companys disease management program for Horizons commercial and Medicare+Choice members with congestive heart failure.
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Despite a clear effort by conference organizers to embrace presentations on new resynchronization/pacing technologies and other interventional technology developments, the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Symposium held here in mid-September served as a clear demonstration that stents specifically the new generation of drug-eluting models are a dominant discussion topic, both among clinicians and an industry that is embracing drug-coated implants as The Next Big Thing in medical technology.
