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ED managers should be pleased with the proposed increases in ambulatory payment classifications (APCs) for fiscal year 2009, says Dennis Beck, MD, FACEP, CEO of Beacon Medical Services in Denver and chair of the quality and performance committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).
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In the wake of a flash flood in June that forced the closing of Columbus (IN) Regional Hospital, the ED reopened about two weeks later in a mobile unit called the Carolinas Mobile Emergency Department-1 (MED-1).
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With The Joint Commission's 2009 National Patient Safety Goals focusing on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), ED managers say the key to compliance remains one of the most basic but difficult to implement strategies of all: hand washing.
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Involving the patient in their own care, an important component of the National Patient Safety Goals for several years, including 2009, also can be a big help for EDs looking to control hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), says Christopher Beach, MD, vice chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, IL. So can education, he adds.
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In anticipation of unannounced survey visits by The Joint Commission, the ED at St. Jude's Medical Center in Fullerton, CA, created a "Code JUDE," or Joint Commission Unannounced Disruption Event, drill to help it prepare.
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A few years ago, cardiac stress testing would not have been an important subject for emergency physicians. With the growth of observation units run by emergency physicians, however, more of us are ordering these tests and then acting on the results.
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This active, population-based, surveillance study was conducted by the CDC, in collaboration with state health departments and universities in 10 states participating in the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance (ABCs)/Emerging Infections Program Network.
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Over the past several years, Japan has been the chief source of measles importation into the United States. A total of 63 cases of measles were imported to the United States from Japan during the past 22 years.
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Reduction of treatment-related toxicities have direct bearing on the decision when to initiate antiretroviral therapy. Clinicians may opt to delay antiretroviral therapy or avoid certain agents because of quality-of-life issues and the risk of treatment-related toxicity.
