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Patients experience headache more than any other form of pain. Headaches account for more than 10 million physician visits annually, including 0.5-2.7% of emergency department (ED) visits.
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In April of this year the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed changes to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) regulations that would once again significantly impact EMTALA's patient transfer rules.
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By nature of their training, skills, and in some hospitals, based on their job descriptions, emergency physicians often respond to hospital "Code Blue" alerts. Not surprisingly, many patients involved in Code Blue situations have poor outcomes, and patients or their families may elect to bring medical malpractice claims against the physicians involved in the resuscitation attempts.
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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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Most of us dread the chief complaint of weakness. This nonspecific symptom engenders a differential that ranges from malingering to fatal, from psychiatric to cancer. The finding of demonstrable muscle weakness helps, but then leads to a confusing set of relatively rare diagnoses.
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