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After waiting 22 hours to be transferred to another facility, a homeless man committed suicide in a Douglasville, GA, ED seclusion room. An investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that the man had not been properly monitored by ED staff.
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ED physicians responding to "code blue" alerts on inpatient units is a common practice but one that exposes them to considerable legal risks.
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Even with rapid diagnosis and initiation of treatment, bacterial meningitis continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in adult patients. Mortality rates for this neurological emergency vary between 13% and 27%, even with adequate and timely antibiotic therapy.
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A color-coded scale is effective at pain assessment in pediatric patients, says a new study that looked at 126 children between 5 and 12 years old presenting to a pediatric ED with acute pain.
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"The pain was gone, and she said yes, she had gotten a little sweaty during this, 'but doesn't everyone sweat when vacuuming?'" says Joan Somes, PhD, MSN, RN, CEN, FAEN, ED educator at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, MN. "Fortunately, my guardian angel told me to get an EKG [electrocardiogram] that day.
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Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning often is overlooked in the ED, in part because symptoms are similar to the flu, but very few EDs screen patients for this condition, says Selim Suner, MD, MS, associate professor of emergency medicine, surgery, and engineering at Brown University and director of disaster medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, both in Providence.
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Epilepsy-related hospitalizations rose 43% from 95,000 in 2000 to 136,000 in 2005, with 66% of these patients admitted through the ED, says a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
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Bioterrorism experts are calling for the anthrax vaccine to be offered to civilian emergency responders and critical infrastructure public safety workers, which could include emergency nurses.
