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Analyze the types of patients who typically come through your doors. Most EDs see a significant percentage of patients with musculoskeletal issues, which is an area of expertise for PTs, but check what the patterns are in your department, and determine what hours of the day are optimal for PT coverage.
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Given that patients are keenly interested in wait times, an increasing number of EDs across the country are taking advantage of new media to make this information more accessible to the public.
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While faster throughput makes financial sense for EDs today, there is some concern that that the type of lower-acuity patient most influenced by advertised wait times may not make financial sense in the future because payers may not be willing to pay for non-emergency care in such an expensive setting, explains David Cummings, RN, CEN, corporate administrator, patient care operations, at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, TN.
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There is mounting evidence in the literature that the routine practice by paramedics of administering IV fluids to severely injured patients before they are transported to the hospital is not only unnecessary, but may also cause harm.
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It may be in the best interest of your ED patient with chest pain, seizures, or transient ischemic attack (TIA) to be admitted, but this may not occur due to factors beyond your control.
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Pertussis, commonly known as the "whooping cough," is an infection of the upper respiratory tract leading to a protracted cough illness. Emergency physicians should become familiar with the diagnosis and management of this disease, given the potential of pertussis infections to cause serious morbidity and mortality in young infants.
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A lawsuit involving a terrible outcome, but good emergency department (ED) care, seemed "very defensible" to Matthew Rice, MD, JD, FACEP, former senior vice president and chief medical officer at Northwest Emergency Physicians of TEAMHealth in Federal Way, WA. Rice was about to recommend that the hospital vigorously defend the case, but it never got to that point.
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Today, it is standard practice for attorneys to do an Internet search on any adverse party and witness, according to Robert D. Kreisman, a medical malpractice attorney with Kreisman Law Offices in Chicago.
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If there was the potential for a better outcome if a patient was transferred, and the patient was harmed and can show that you breached the standard of care, a successful lawsuit could result, says Michael Blaivas, MD, RDMS, professor of emergency medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northside Hospital Forsyth in Cumming, GA.
