ER doctors’ fees targeted by governor

From the Sacramento Bee
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday acted to stop emergency-room doctors from charging patients for costs not covered by managed-care insurance plans.
In an executive order, the governor ordered the state agency that oversees managed health care to issue regulations barring the practice. He also directed the Department of Managed Health Care to set [...]

Emerging Med-Mal Strategy: ‘I’m Sorry’

From Law.com
Doctors’ apologies for medical mistakes may not be a cure-all for litigation, but explaining unforeseen outcomes and making early settlement offers have proven effective, say lawyers who have participated in the process in the last decade.
The concept is called “full disclosure/early offer,” and it’s spreading.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Health [...]

Site Encourages Blacklist of Med-Mal Plaintiffs

From the Daily Business Review
In the latest effort to enable doctors to shun patients who sue, an offshore company has launched an Internet site that lists the names of plaintiffs who have filed medical malpractice cases in Florida and their attorneys.
The site, LitiPages.com, encourages doctors to consider avoiding patients who are listed in the [...]

Medication errors injure more than 1.5 million yearly, study finds

From CNN.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medication mistakes injure well over 1.5 million Americans every year, a toll too often unrecognized and unfought, says a sobering call to action.
At least a quarter of the errors are preventable, the Institute of Medicine said Thursday in urging major steps by the government, health providers and patients alike.
Topping the list: [...]

ER waiting rooms defy stereotypes

From USA Today
Countering a popular belief, researchers say that communities with higher numbers of uninsured, Hispanics or non-citizens have a lower use of hospital emergency departments.Instead, places with the highest levels of emergency department use are those with more elderly residents, communities where people have to wait a long time for appointments with their own [...]

A Statewide, Prehospital Emergency Medical Service Selective Patient Spine Immobilization Protocol

From the Journal of Trauma
A Statewide, Prehospital Emergency Medical Service Selective Patient Spine Immobilization Protocol
Background: To evaluate the practices and outcomes associated with a statewide, emergency medical services (EMS) protocol for trauma patient spine assessment and selective patient immobilization.
Methods: An EMS spine assessment protocol was instituted on July 1, 2002 for all EMS providers in [...]

Growing Crisis in Patient Access to Emergency Surgical Care

The College of Surgeons has released a report entitled “The Growing Crisis in Patient Access to Emergency Surgical Care” which details the problems associated with the shortage of surgeons serving on ED call panels and the reasons for those shortages. The report advocates for some specific federal and state action to address the crisis. Some [...]

Cervical Spine Examination

From the journal Trauma:
Delayed or Missed Diagnosis of Cervical Spine Injuries
Background: Correct diagnosis of cervical spine injuries is still a common problem in traumatology. The incidence of delayed diagnosis ranges from 5 to 20%. The aim of this study was to analyze the frequency and reasons for delayed or missed diagnosis at this Level I [...]

Emergency Department Visits Remain at Record High Levels

From ACEP:
WASHINGTON, DC- Visits to the nation’s emergency departments remain at record high levels with an average of more than 300,000 visits made to U.S. emergency departments every day in 2004, according to the latest statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Frederick Blum, President of the American [...]

Patient attacks two paramedics, takes over ambulance in Ohio

From JEMS:
A psychiatric patient overpowered two paramedics and hijacked their ambulance Tuesday morning while en route to a Geauga County hospital for medication, sheriff’s officials said.
The woman — described in a frantic 9-1-1 call by one of the paramedics as violent and out of control — then spent roughly a half-hour driving the rescue vehicle [...]