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Under-triage, or assessing patients as being less ill than they actually are, can lead to treatment delays and adverse outcomes, including serious injury and even death.
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When patients present to the ED with dizziness, oftentimes the provider will order a computed tomography (CT) scan to rule out serious medical problems, such as intracranial bleeding or stroke. However, a new study suggests that such scans may not be worth the expense in the vast majority of cases.
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Already burdened with increased demand for medical services, EDs across the country are also seeing a spike in the number of patients who present with behavioral health issues.
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A new study suggests that there are serious problems with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) new imaging efficiency measure for ED use of computed tomography (CT) for headaches.
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Several decades ago, two patients arrived in my emergency department with intense vomiting, bronchorrhea, and seizure-like activity. Their symptoms started about 30 minutes after consuming a mushroom stew. The wife considered herself to be an expert in mushroom identification and had picked several species of mushrooms, including a few very large ones with bright red tops. Both patients required intubation and several milligrams of atropine to handle their bronchial secretions. Several hours before, they had eaten a mushroom stew containing mushrooms they had picked that morning.
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"Everyone knows that a patient with a heart rate higher than 90 should be admitted to the hospital."
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At what point after a lawsuit alleging ED malpractice is filed will a sued EP learn what the opposing experts say about the case? This depends on the legal strategy being used by the plaintiff's attorneys and state laws, says Jonnathan Busko, MD, an EP at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and medical director of Maine EMS Region IV.
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Ken Zafren, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, FAWM, EMS medical director for the state of Alaska and clinical associate professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stanford (CA) University Medical Center, says that while much attention has been paid to the problem of plaintiff experts making false statements about ED care, he's also experienced defense experts making false statements.
