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In the United States during 2002, asthma accounted for 12.7 million physician visits; 1.9 million emergency department (ED) visits; 484,000 hospitalizations; and 4,261 deaths. The prevalence of asthma in our society has led it to be the eleventh most common diagnosis in the ED. The direct and indirect costs of the disease are estimated to exceed $14 billion annually in the United States alone.
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Complaints pertaining to teeth are very common, and patients frequently utilize emergency departments (EDs) for their initial care. Most patients understand that definitive care must be provided by a dentist or oral surgeon, but either a lack of financial resources, inability to contact their dentist, severe pain, or acute trauma leads patients to EDs first.
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A pacemaker is an electronic device that provides an electrical signal to stimulate the heart beat when the intrinsic pacemakers fail. The development and implementation of cardiac pacing and pacemaker generators has been well described and documented in many publications.
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Ever present in the health care provider's training and practice is the continual responsibility to provide documentation. Although it is ever drummed into our heads that proper documentation is necessary for the purposes of billing, quality assurance, and risk management, documentation is also important in real time for the purposes of communication among caregivers. Not only must each health care practitioner record his/her own activities and findings related to a patient's care, but each practitioner also must take heed of every other provider's documentation.
