CDC: Smoking deaths cost $92 billion

From CNN.com

Early deaths caused by smoking cost the nation about $92 billion in lost productivity between 1997 and 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Smoking reduces life expectancy an average of about 14 years by way of lung cancer, heart disease other illnesses, according to the CDC.

In the study, “lost productivity” meant lost wages. The CDC gave no overall estimate of the smoking-related health-care costs over the same five-year period, but estimated them at $75.5 billion in 1998 alone.

Altered Standards of Care in Mass Casualty Events

From the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), excerpted below. The webpage has a link to the reoprt and recommendations.

Mong the recommendations:
-Develop general and event-specific guidelines for allocating scarce health and medical resources
-Implement a process to address nonmedical (i.e., finance, communication) issues related to the delivery of health and medical care
-Develop a comprehensive strategy for risk communication with the public
-Develop practical tools such as searchable databases for verifying credentials of medical personnel on-site during a mass casualty event
-Develop a “Community-Based Planning Guide for Mass Casualty Care” to assist preparedness planners

The excerpt:

A mass casualty event could compromise the ability of health systems to deliver services meeting established standards of care. It is critical to plan for adjusting current heath and medical care standards to ensure that the care provided in a mass casualty event result in saving as many lives as possible.

To address the issue, an expert panel was convened by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Move EMS from DOT to DHS?

Another article from JEMS, excerpted below:

A Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) task force announced today that EMS would be more appropriately delegated to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) than under its current administration by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The task force makes the assertion that “the time is ripe for EMS to move to a more suitable federal agency” because the modern responsibilities of EMS have outgrown its home with the DOT, a home that made sense when early EMS still focused on transporting MVC patients, according to the press release.

Gunshot-Wound Patient Slain in EMS Presence

From JEMS magazine, excerpted below:

Seventeen-year-old Billie Rutledge lay on a stretcher, bleeding from handgun wounds and yelling for help, while Detroit paramedics rushed to remove his clothing on Saturday, June 7, according to Free Press. However, before the paramedics could finish assessing him, the masked assailant returned to the scene, now armed with a shotgun, and fatally shot Rutledge in the head.

Rutledge, who had reportedly just finished serving a sentence for a misdemeanor conviction the day before his death, was on a walk with a friend when he was shot several times.

According to police reports, EMS arrived at approximately 3:30 a.m. and found Rutledge lying in a driveway, bleeding from small-caliber bullet wounds and screaming for help. Paramedics James Peyton and Toby Hanna put the patient on a stretcher and snipped off his clothing to locate the wounds.

As they carried the stretcher to an ambulance, the paramedics heard the sound of a shotgun racking and turned to find the assailant on scene again. Peyton and Hanna fled several yards before they heard two shots, the police report states. They were not injured and were on optional stress leave the following Monday.

ER Stats

From the National Center for Health Statistics “FASTATS” Emergency Department Visits page, (Data are for U.S. for 2003)

Number of visits: 113.9 million

Number of injury-related visits: 40.2 million

Number of illness-related visits: 74 million

Number of visits per 100 persons: 38.9

Most commonly diagnosed condition: acute respiratory infection

Percent of visits with patient seen in less than 15 minutes: 22.3

Average time spent in emergency department: 3.2 hours

Percent of visits resulting in hospital admission: 14

Percent of visits resulting in intensive care unit or coronary care unit admission: 1.3