The federal government, through the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), as well as some states such as California and Florida, mandates hospitals and physicians to provide medical services to anyone presenting to the hospital's emergency department (ED). Why shouldn't governmental liability protections, such as immunity and/or damage limitations, apply to providers of emergency services?
This is the first of a two-part series on severe traumatic brain injury, focusing on the evidence for optimal care.
The Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course for doctors was introduced in Nebraska in 1978 and given nationally for the first time in 1980 by the American College of Surgeons. The goal of ATLS is to serve as a safe and reliable method for managing patients with traumatic injury and provide a "common baseline for the continued innovation and challenge of existing paradigms in trauma care."
Remember the principle of homeostasis from first-year physiology the idea that the human body has self-regulating processes to maintain a desirable internal state? What were we taught to do when disease disrupted the self-regulating processes, and physiologic parameters were abnormal? Use medical treatments to restore them to normal values. Well, now we know that this may not be the best way to enhance survival.
The FDA has approved a single-dose formulation of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive previously available in a two-tablet dose.
