ED Management – June 1, 2005
June 1, 2005
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Impostors targeting U.S. hospitals: Could terrorists come to your ED?
It began with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations issuing formal warnings about people posing as surveyors to gain access to health care facilities. However, they may have been only a small piece of the problem. ED Management has learned of more than a dozen such incidents several involving EDs in which individuals claiming to be Joint Commission surveyors, physicians, or members of government agencies presented themselves at hospitals and began asking probing questions about areas such as staffing and bed capacity. -
Anatomy of an incident: Impostors thwarted
When a gentleman of Middle Eastern appearance entered the ED at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg, NJ, March 11, 2004, he began asking the duty nurse atypical questions relating to the hospitals bed capacity, the means by which care was delivered, and how many patients the department had at certain times. -
ED targeted by impostors . . . not this time!
Heres the other side of the impostors coin or to put it another way, an incident that proves things arent always what they seem. -
Adapt use of physician extenders for your needs
Among the more challenging issues facing ED managers are those where there are no universal rules governing policies and procedures at least none that are clearly spelled out by nationwide organizations such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. -
New ambulance policy slashes diversion hours
In the fall of 2001, ED diversion hours in San Diego County, CA, were averaging 4,006 a month, with a monthly average of 1,320 diverted ambulance patients. Area hospitals were on diversion status an average of one out of every four hours. -
Can your ED duplicate San Diego’s success?
Could an ambulance diversion program work in your area? The answer is yes, according to one ED manager who co-chaired the San Diego Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Medical Oversight Committee (EMOC) that created a successful new diversion program in San Diego County. -
Can’t ID a difficult rash? Digital photos can help
Prior to spring 2004, the ED staffs at Ocean Springs (MS) Hospital and Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, MS, would diagnose patients the old-fashioned way when treating unusual skins rashes. They would refer to medical texts which, if they were lucky, contained photographs of the rashes in question, and then make their diagnosis. -
EMTALA Q & A
I am a chairman in an ED, and this case recently occurred: A man came to the ED after cutting his flexor tendon at home. He had 100% flexor cut on his nondominant hand. He also was experiencing a loss of sensation around the ulnar aspect of the affected index finger. -
CMS implements $1 billion program for the uninsured
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has implemented the new $1 billion program for emergency health services furnished to undocumented aliens.