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The dangers of sleep deprivation and fatigue can no longer be ignored.
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In a series of questionable decisions, a California federal court allowed a plaintiff to bring a "failure-to-screen" claim under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) against a hospital for what was really an ordinary state malpractice claim for "failure to diagnose," and then held that California's $250,000 damages cap wouldn't apply because the EMTALA claim was not a "professional negligence" claim as contemplated by the state's tort reform law - the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA).
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This story concludes a two-part series on liability risks of boarding admitted patients in the ED. This month, we report on the problem of EDs providing an unequal level of care compared to what patients would have gotten on inpatient units.
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Emergency departments pour a lot of resources into compliance with the Joint Commission's standards, including the National Patient Safety Goals. But is there any evidence that compliance with The Joint Commission standards decreases liability risks for an emergency department?
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Although the original study by Van den Berghe et al sparked interest in the use of intensive insulin therapy in the ICU, subsequent studies have cast doubt on the efficacy and safety of this practice.
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Tracking the utilization of intensive care unit (ICU) resources is important in informing clinicians of patterns of use and costs of care, especially as the proportion of patients aged 65 and older increases and ICU resources remain limited.
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This study reports on the results of a single-hospital study of a quality improvement intervention to improve palliative care in the ICU.
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The purpose of this study was to determine whether use of a simple, easy-to-view, color-coded device could increase adherence to head-of-bed (HOB) elevation guidelines. The device consisted of a piece of glossy printer paper cut into a triangle.
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When critical illness occurs, the primary goal is to assist patients to survive the acute threat to their lives. This goal is commonly achieved with 75%-90% of patients who are admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) surviving to discharge.
