EMTALA – "Parking" of Emergency Medical Service Patients in Hospitals

Excerpted from a July 13, 2006 CMS Memo to State Survey Directors
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has learned that several hospitals routinely prevent Emergency Medical Service (EMS) staff from transferring patients from their ambulance stretchers to a hospital bed or gurney. Reports include patients being left on an EMS stretcher (with EMS [...]

2005 PIAA Report on Emergency Medicine Claims

From our friends at EPIC
Highlights include:
61% of emergency physicians named in claims are under the age 45
There are a higher percentage of females named in claims than males as compared to other specialties
The average indemnity payment is $249,000
23% of claims result in indemnity payment
The most prevalent medical misadventure is diagnostic errors. Specifically, in regards [...]

How to Build Trust in a Tenth of a Second

From Medgadget. I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, which has a similar thesis.
Princeton University psychologist Alex Todorov has found that people respond intuitively to faces so rapidly that our reasoning minds may not have time to influence the reaction — and that our intuitions about attraction and trust are among those we [...]

Off-Hours Clinic Uses Telemedicine

A new off-hours clinic, called Health-e-Station, uses telemedicine to treat patients quicker and less expensively than emergency departments, the Atlanta Journal- Constitution reports.
A patient who arrives at the clinic between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. and is given a login and password to use a computer to answer medical history questions. A medical [...]

QuickStats: Number of Emergency Department (ED) Visits with Diagnostic Imaging Ordered or Performed—United States, 1995 and 2004

From JAMA:

ACEP Statement on Teleradiology

From the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP):
Excerpted from: Radiologic Imaging and Teleradiology in the Emergency Department
Teleradiology is a relatively new, but rapidly advancing field that is impacting the practice of emergency physicians across the country. Teleradiology refers to the transmission of digital images, usually across high-bandwidth lines, to a remote location for the [...]

Remote Treatment of Emergency Victims

From Medgadget:
A severe car accident takes place… a few minutes later the ambulance shows up… the severely injured and barely breathing driver is placed in the ambulance with all kinds of medical equipment around him/her but no medical expertise until the ambulance arrives in the hospital …
Well now a system for remote treatment could [...]

Validation of a Rule for Termination of Resuscitation in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

From the New England Journal of Medicine:
Background We prospectively evaluated a clinical prediction rule to be used by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) trained in the use of an automated external defibrillator for the termination of basic life support resuscitative efforts during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The rule recommends termination when there is no return of spontaneous [...]

Who is to blame for health crisis?

From the San Francisco Chronicle (an editorial):
A recent study showing that uninsured and illegal immigrants shouldn’t be blamed for the nation’s overcrowded emergency rooms begs the question: Who should be?
The Center for Studying Health System Change analyzed about 46,000 people in 12 communities. They discovered that communities with high numbers of uninsured and immigrant [...]

County to limit access to ERs

From the Houston Chronicle:
Harris County’s public hospitals are about to tighten access to their emergency rooms, which for decades have served as the doctor’s office for some patients with noncritical medical needs.
On Tuesday, what has been an open-door policy at Ben Taub and LBJ hospitals will become stricter.
To reduce emergency room overcrowding, the hospitals for [...]