Almost Half of Hospitals Experience Crowded Emergency Departments

A report from the Centers for Disease Control:
Staffing, Capacity, and Ambulance Diversion in Emergency Departments: United States, 2003-04 (A summary, with a link to the report)
Between 40 percent and 50 percent of U.S. hospitals experience crowded conditions in the emergency department (ED) with almost two-thirds of metropolitan EDs experiencing crowding at times, according to a [...]

Medication Error

From AOL News (AP wire):
Early last Saturday, nurses at an Indianapolis hospital went to the drug cabinet in the newborn intensive care unit to get blood-thinner for several premature babies.
The nurses didn’t realize a pharmacy technician had mistakenly stocked the cabinet with vials containing a dose 1,000 times stronger than what the babies were [...]

Access to Emergency Care: Rural America

From an American College of Emergency Phyiscians (ACEP) press release (emphasis added):
Emergency Physicians’ President Testifies in Salt Lake City at IOM Forum on Rural Emergency Medicine
Washington, DC - Rural areas deserve special consideration as the nation rethinks the way emergency medicine is organized and delivered in the United States, according to Dr. Frederick Blum, President [...]

Death in the Waiting Room: ACEP Responds

A press release from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP):
The death of an Illinois woman in an emergency department waiting room has generated questions about what emergency patients should do if they are waiting and their medical conditions worsen. To address these concerns, the president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) [...]

Novel Call to Action

From Medgadget:
On behalf of O’Canadian Red Cross, an ad agency Downtown Partners has placed life-size realistic decals of collapsed men and women at the bottom of stairwells at two Cineplex Odeon Theatres in Toronto. The campaign’s goal was to mark World First Aid Day.
The company explains:
At first glance, the decal generates the impression that [...]

Intruder strangled by nurse: a hit man?

From the Oregonian, an update on an earlier post:
Michael James Kuhnhausen Sr. first hired Edward Dalton Haffey to mop up the mess at Fantasy Adult Video.
Police say he then hired Haffey, a convicted felon with a long criminal history, to kill his wife.
Kuhnhausen, the estranged husband of the emergency room nurse who strangled [...]

Death after two-hour ER wait ruled homicide

From the Chicago TribuneDeath after two-hour ER wait ruled homicide
WAUKEGAN, Illinois (AP) — A coroner’s jury has declared the death of a heart attack victim who spent almost two hours in a hospital waiting room to be a homicide.
Beatrice Vance, 49, died of a heart attack, but the jury at a coroner’s inquest ruled Thursday [...]

Police: Nurse, 51, kills intruder with bare hands

From CNN.com
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — A nurse returning from work discovered an intruder armed with a hammer in her home and strangled him with her bare hands, police said.
Susan Kuhnhausen, 51, ran to a neighbor’s house after the confrontation Wednesday night. Police found the body of Edward Dalton Haffey 59, a convicted felon with a [...]

Overuse of Over-The-Counter Analgesics Significant In Emergency Patients

From ACEP, via Press Release:
Many people coming to emergency departments overuse over-the- counter pain medications, including acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen, which can lead to serious medical problems, such as peptic ulcer, gastritis, and liver injury, as reported in the September issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine (”Overuse of Over-the-Counter Analgesics by Emergency Department Patients”).
“Pain [...]

Pharmacist Review of Medication Orders

From the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP):
FAQs in Practice Management
Question: I have been told that JCAHO requires pharmacist review of medication orders prior to medication administration in the ED unless it is an emergency. Is this correct?
Answer: Yes. JCAHO standard MM.4.10 (Medication Management) states,
…a pharmacist reviews all prescription or medication orders unless a licensed [...]