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A growing number of hospitals are allowing patients to view their own medical records electronically. Does this increase liability risks for emergency physicians?
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Some studies suggest that drug screens rarely influence clinical interventions or disposition, but other authors support the use of routine drug screening in the ED. In addition to this dispute, the test itself is associated with problems that restrict its ability to provide real-time, clinically-relevant information and is often misunderstood by the ordering physician.
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Treatment of severe hypertension in today's busy emergency departments can be confusing and a large source of medical liability.
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Many odors are noxious, but few are as repellent as the foul smell of massive hematochezia. Everybody in the emergency department knows something is wrong. Once you get past the smell, you realize you often have a very ill patient with a complex medical history and underlying comorbidities. Disposition decision is often easy ("ADMIT"), but to whom and where?
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Injuries of the wrist and elbow in children are frequently seen in the emergency department (ED), and as children and adolescents are participating in sports in record numbers, the frequency of these injuries is continuing to rise. Sports injuries in children and adolescents are by far the most common cause of musculoskeletal injuries treated in the ED, accounting for 41% of all musculoskeletal injuries.
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The scenario of a resident physician who is involved in a medical malpractice case occurs more commonly than you might think in the day-to-day practice of emergency medicine.
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Low back pain (LBP) is a common (more than 3 million ED visits per year in the United States) yet typically benign ED complaint.
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A 15-year-old girl's mother demands that you give her daughter a pregnancy test, but the child refuses. What do you do?
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Consider this scenario: During a malpractice trial involving a patient's adverse outcome in your ED, the jury learns that you've been in the habit of accepting expensive dinners and vacations from drug companies.
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Few sounds or smells in the emergency department (ED) get our attention as easily as vomiting. In response, we might reflexively order our "one-size-fits-all" standard antiemetic and begin by assuming that this is probably just another case of "gastroenteritis." There are, however, several antiemetics to choose from, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, as well as a myriad of diagnostic possibilities to consider.
