Thirty-Minute CPR Course as Effective as a Three-Hour One

From Medpage Today:
A 30-minute, video-based cardiopulmonary resuscitation course (CPR) is as effective as a traditional 3-hour course, with possibly better retention at six months, researchers found.
A comparison of the short course with longer versions of CPR training was conducted by a team at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, here, and reported in [...]

Report: Average patient spends 4 hours in ED

Source: AHA News Now (http://www.ahanews.com)Date: June 28, 2007
The average time spent in emergency departments rose in 2006, but so did patient satisfaction, according to a new report by Press Ganey Associates. Based on the firm’s patient surveys in 1,500 hospitals, patients spent an average of 4 hours in the ED, 18 minutes more than in [...]

Baghdad ER

Baghdad ER” an excellent documentary originally aired on HBO, is now posted, in its entirety, on Google Video.
Here’s a link to a site devoted to the program at HBO.com

New Cervical Collar Design

From Medgadget
“LuboCollar is designed to protect the neck by restricting the movement of the head relative to the rest of the body and to maintain an open airway in a non-invasive, simple and quick to operate way. It does so by using a “jaw-thrust”-like knob to maneuver the mandibles, pushing them forward in the direction [...]

Reassurance Workup

From Movin’ Meat:
I have devised a simple, cheap and quick “reassurance work-up” for these folks which consists of: an ECG, an i-Stat, a D-dimer, and a troponin. Sometimes I add a chest x-ray if it seems helpful. (We are lucky in that most of these tests can be done in the ED’s stat lab with [...]

ACEP Comment on CDC Data

ED Visits Jump to Record 115 Million
Visits to emergency departments increased to an all-time high of 115 million in 2005, 5 million more than in 2004, according to a [new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ACEP leaders said the increase in visits combined with closures of emergency departments threaten the safety [...]

CMS Proposes Big Cuts for 2008 Medicare Payments

From ACEP:
The now yearly controversy over cuts to Medicare payments has started again, and without congressional action, emergency physicians could see a 12% decrease in Medicare payments starting in 2008. The 2007 Medicare Trustees report predicts total cuts of approximately 40% for all physician payments by 2016.
Key policy makers on Capitol Hill expressed concern about [...]

National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2005 Emergency Department Summary

Available as a PDF on the CDC website
Here’s one graph (courtesy of GruntDoc)

Pay for Specialist Coverage for the ED

From the American Hospital Association
More than one-third of hospitals now pay for some physician specialty emergency department call coverage, according to results from AHA’s survey of hospital leaders. The 2007 State of America’s Hospitals - Taking the Pulse also found 55% of hospitals experienced gaps in physician specialty coverage with coverage issues most prevalent in [...]

Physicain Drain in (Rural) Upstate New York

It’s similar in other rural areas, I’d wager…
From The New York Times
While newly licensed doctors flock to New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, where there is already a glut, far fewer choose to practice in the vast upstate region. For instance, during the years the study was conducted, Essex County in the Adirondacks [...]