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New Service Accelerates Critical Care Expertise to ED Patients

With ICU-level resources often limited, especially in rural areas, investigators with the University of Vermont Health Network based in Burlington implemented a new service designed to expand the reach of critical care expertise across the health system, which includes a tertiary hospital, two community hospitals, and three critical access hospitals.

Is the Patient Admitted to the ICU But Still in the ED? Handoffs Are a Safety Concern

Many patients are admitted to the intensive care unit but remain in the ED waiting for an inpatient bed. Depending on how long the patient is boarded, emergency physicians may need to hand the patient off at shift change.

Maximize ED Throughput with a Higher-Level Focus on Bed Traffic Control

Getting patients seen and treated expeditiously is not only a boon in terms of operational efficiency, it also is a big plus for patient safety. Such factors figured prominently when ED leaders at AdventHealth East Orlando decided to create a powerful new nursing position to take charge of what they are calling bed traffic control.

Evolving Legal Exposure for Supervising EPs

If an ED patient seen by a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant sues for malpractice, the supervising emergency physician is likely to be named as a co-defendant. That is true even if the emergency physician never saw or heard about the patient, according to a recent study.

ED Malpractice Claims Differ for Attendings, Trainees, NPs, PAs

Emergency medicine is an inherently high-risk specialty regarding malpractice liability because of complex cases and a fast-paced environment. Increasingly, EDs are staffed by advanced practice providers. It is unclear whether this changes liability for EDs and, if so, in what way.

AI: Friend or Foe to IP & C, Healthcare Epidemiology?

Artificial intelligence chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer (ChatGPT), are thought to have potential to eventually replace some straightforward infectious disease consultations. However, current technology does not yet instill confidence that the use of chatbots will be adequately accurate or safe for complex patient care. In addition, philosophical and ethical constraints raise doubt about the value of replacing specialist physician consultations.

Denying Religious Exception Proves Costly in Flu Mandate

The line between religious exemption and discrimination was brightly drawn recently by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Faced with an EEOC lawsuit regarding an employee denied a religious exemption, an Atlanta pediatric facility settled a religious discrimination lawsuit by agreeing to pay a fired employee $45,000.

Toothbrushing to Prevent Pneumonia

Oral care, including time-honored toothbrushing, may save a patient’s life from pneumonia of all stripes.

Next Pandemic: IPs, Drug Stewards Have Key Roles

Infection preventionists and antibiotic stewards struggled mightily during the height of the pandemic, largely overwhelmed like the rest of the healthcare system. No doubt they prevented some of the impact, but it was a losing effort and those results spoke to their importance as much as any success.

Vaccination Can Prevent or Lessen Long COVID

Could long COVID — a horrific condition anyone would want to avoid — shake people out of the malaise of vaccine apathy, if not outright distrust? Evidence is accumulating that receiving the COVID-19 vaccination before being initially infected with SARS-CoV-2 can significantly reduce the risk of long COVID in children and adults.