"Anesthetic jab treats headache in the ER"

From CNN.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) — For patients suffering severe headaches who seek help in hospital emergency rooms, the painkiller bupivacaine injected into the muscles at the base of the neck provides safe and effective headache relief.
These are the findings of a look back at all 417 headache patients, 18 years of age or older, who [...]

Hospital charged in alleged patient dumping on Skid Row

From CNN:
In an unprecedented crackdown on a practice experts say is shamefully common around the country, a major hospital chain was accused by prosecutors Thursday of ridding itself of a homeless patient by dumping her on crime-plagued Skid Row.
A surveillance camera at a rescue mission recorded the demented 63-year-old woman wandering around the streets in [...]

EM on NPR

From NPR Morning Edition November 14, 2006U.S. Emergency Medicine Fails Patients by Arthur Kellerman
The American emergency care system is overloaded, overcrowded and unable to keep up with the needs of its patients. The author is a professor of emergency medicine.

See-Thru CPR from Zoll

From Medgadget:
Medgadget tipster Mark L. brings to our attention a new defibrillator from Zoll, featuring See-Thru CPR™, “software filter to get rid CPR artifact as it is being done.”
Here’s how the company explains its technology:
More than half of in-hospital codes involve non-shockable rhythms. In such cases, the only treatment for such rhythms is high-quality CPR, [...]

Handheld Lasers in the ED

From Medgadget:
Apparently, using a handheld laser over the planned IV site will ablate the topmost layer of skin, allowing transdermal anesthetics to seep though. Patients reported less pain in this randomized controlled trial (the patients and researchers were also blinded, though it’s not clear whether it was by design protocol, or from the power of [...]

Red Cross, Back Blows 2

From redcross.org (page 10)
Back Blows and Abdominal ThrustsThe responder should take a position slightly behind the victim. Provide support by placing one arm diagonally across the chest and lean the person forward.
The responder should firmly strike the person between the shoulder blades with the heel of the other hand five times. If the back blows [...]

Red Cross: Add Back Blows to Heimlech?

From the Columbus Dispatch, via GruntDoc:For decades, a hunk of pork chop stuck in your throat meant one thing: the Heimlich maneuver, a technique made famous in posters and first-aid classes.
It calls for a rescuer to wrap arms around the victim’s waist, make a fist below the rib cage and above the navel, grab [...]

SIDS Research

From ScienceNow, via Medgadget:
Babies with SIDS suffocate while asleep, usually when they lie face-down and breathe in too much carbon dioxide. Normal infants would survive by reflexively gasping for air, but something about SIDS victims prevents them from doing this. That’s why SIDS researchers have been focusing on serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain [...]

Study: ER docs do better with naps

From UPI:
STANFORD, Calif., Oct. 31 (UPI) — Give emergency room doctors a nap, and they will do a better job and be nicer to you, according to a new U.S. study.
Emergency room physicians who were allowed a 40-minute nap showed an improved mood, a higher alertness level and the ability to complete a simulated [...]

Emergency department visits continue to rise, AHA annual survey finds

From AHA News:
Hospitals treated more than 114 million patients in the emergency department in 2005, while inpatient visits remained constant at 35.2 million, according to the AHA’s Annual Survey of Hospitals. ED visits have increased by about one-third since 1990 while the number of EDs has declined, increasing pressure on EDs that remain open. Worker [...]