In East Texas culture affects health issues

From the Marshall News Messenger:
One area that Collier said has to improve is the use of the Emergency Department for primary care.
“The Emergency Department has to revert back to what it was designed for — emergency care. We have to transform the Emergency Department from primary care for people who don’t have a physician or [...]

Disruptive behavior by doctors, nurses persists a year after crackdown

From amednews (AMA):
… disruptive behaviors that persist among physicians and nurses at hospitals, group practices and other health care facilities, according to anonymous responses to a national survey of 13,000 physician and nurse executives conducted by the American College of Physician Executives.
The survey comes almost one year after the Joint Commission began requiring health care [...]

Paramedics Extricate 800lb. Man from Recliner; Patient Dies of Cardiac Arrest Enroute to Hospital

From JEMS (Quoting the AP):
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When an ambulance brought Daniel Webb home from the hospital after he hurt his knee in March, paramedics warned the then 550-pound man he probably wouldn’t be able to get up from his recliner if they put him there, his wife said.
Webb told them to leave him there [...]

Forbes: Primary care physician shortage and international physicians

From Forbes:
Primary care physicians, essential to keeping chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure from escalating into expensive hospital visits, are in short supply: The American Academy of Family Physicians predicts a shortage of 40,000 general practice docs within ten years as U.S. med school grads favor higher-paying specialties. (At the moment 32% of [...]

L.A. County Paramedics Begin Using Stroke Centers

From JEMS (quoting the LA Times)
Patients will be routed to one of 10 hospitals that have a specialized stroke neurologist available at all times. Officials hope the new policy will save lives.
Paramedics on Monday began transporting suspected stroke victims in Los Angeles County to the nearest certified stroke center, a change that officials hope will [...]

Active surface cooling protocol to induce mild therapeutic hypothermia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

From Critical Care Medicine:
Objective: To evaluate whether implementation of a therapeutic hypothermia protocol on arrival in a community hospital improved survival and neurologic outcomes in patients initially found to have ventricular fibrillation, pulseless electrical activity, or asystole, and then successfully resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Design: A retrospective study of patients who presented after implementation of [...]

Neckties as biohazard vectors

From the Wall Street Journal, via Symtym/Twitter:
The list of things to avoid during flu season includes crowded buses, hospitals and handshakes. Consider adding this: your doctor’s necktie.
Neckties are rarely, if ever, cleaned. When a patient is seated on the examining table, doctors’ ties often dangle perilously close to sneeze level. In recent years, a debate [...]

Hospital to distribute ER primer

From the Wichita Falls (TX) Times Record:
An emergency list — which includes room to write down prescription medications, the frequency and dosage — will be part of an insert United Regional is providing Friday in every copy of the Times Record News.
The insert, titled “A Trip to the Emergency Room — Help Us Help You,” [...]

For Chest Pain in the ER, CT Angiography May Be Best

From US News:
Compared to standard emergency room triage, CT angiography is quicker, more accurate and much less expensive for screening patients with chest pain who have low to moderate enzyme and EKG scores, according to a new study.
The study included 749 acute chest pain patients at 16 emergency rooms who were randomly assigned to receive [...]

101 Ways to Use Twitter in Your Hospital

From the LPN to RN Blog, via the Studer Group/Twitter:
Marketing & Public Relations
Get the word out and promote your hospital with Twitter.
Monitor for problems: Find out what’s being said about your hospital, and respond to it on Twitter.
Get support for causes: Tweet about causes that are important to your hospital and patients.
Share news releases: Use [...]