-
All members of the ED staff, including physicians, residents, interns, and nurses, are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect, says Robert D. Kreisman, a medical malpractice attorney with Kreisman Law Offices in Chicago.
-
When an emergency physician (EP) reported suspected child abuse, he inadvertently gave the wrong family's information to the authorities, and the child was removed from the home. If you were the EP in question, would you expect to be on the receiving end of a lawsuit?
-
Very little literature or case law exists to shed light on the circumstances that might result in litigation against health care providers for allegedly making false reports of suspected abuse of adult ED patients, according to Edward Monico, MD, JD, assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.
-
Does the EP's charting indicate that a patient was discharged home, while an ED nurse's documentation states, "The patient looks very sick and I don't think he should be discharged," go unacknowledged without any additional explanation?
-
Musculoskeletal injuries account for approximately 10-15% of all childhood injuries, with most occurring as a result of a fall, sports-related injury, motor vehicle trauma, or intentional physical abuse.
-
Nearly 8% of 355,088 children received a CT scan in a 3-year period, with 3.5% of the children receiving more than one, according to a recent study.
-
Is your patient telling you, "It's probably something I ate," "It's nothing," "There isn't any heart history in my family," or "I'm way too young to have a heart problem?"
-
Would you think to tell a receiving nurse that your ED patient has a dog at home she's worried about? That may be the reason she's refusing admission, says Pat Clutter, RN, MEd, CEN, FAEN, an ED nurse at St. John's Lebanon (MO) Hospital.
-
At St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, NH, ED nurses do at least 90% of bedside dysphagia screens while the patient is still in the ED, says Susan L. Barnard, MS, APRN, CCRN, trauma coordinator.
-
You, and other ED nurses, may have been taking care of a patient for hours without realizing he or she has an infection that requires isolation. The fast-paced ED environment is an added challenge in preventing ED-acquired infections, according to Susan Gray, RN, BSN, CEN, an ED nurse at Greater Baltimore (MD) Medical Center. "Staff are in and out of rooms often," she adds.
