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.
ED physicians responding to "code blue" alerts on inpatient units is a common practice but one that exposes them to considerable legal risks.
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.
A new generation of physicians is reinvigorating the field of cardiac arrest research. I am grateful that two of the experts in this area have written this issue of EM Reports. After reading this, I anticipate you will place these principles into practice.
