-
The bad news: Most ED experts believe that health care reform will only exacerbate the steady growth of volume in the nation's EDs.
-
-
-
-
-
Remember the days before sensitive serum pregnancy tests and 24-hour ultrasound availability? Remember performing a culdocentesis to determine if the patient was stable for discharge? I do, and I don't miss them.
-
(Editor's Note: This is a two-part series on keeping patients safe during lengthy waits in the ED. This month, we give practices to avoid missing a patient's deterioration in waiting areas, how to enlist the help of others in visualizing patients, and what to tell family members to watch for. Next month, we'll report on how to avoid blocked views of patients and which patients are at particularly high risk for sudden deterioration.)
-
Nurses in the Scottish Rite ED at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta were frustrated because they were constantly dealing with multiple sets of orders on multiple patients.
-
While the EKG is done immediately upon a chest pain patient's arrival at Huntsville (AL) Hospital, it still must be reviewed by the ED physician within five minutes.
-
Is your patient presenting with vague complaints of abdominal pain, flank pain or a history of renal stones, recurrent dislocations, or intentional trauma? Consider the possibility of pain medication abuse. (See story, below, on new CDC report on ED visits for non-medical use of pain medications.)
