Simulation Lab Training

From the Journal of Emergency Medicine: Background: Simulation (SIM) allows medical students to manage high-risk/low-frequency cases in an environment without patient risk. However, evidence for the efficacy of SIM-based training remains limited. Objective: To compare SIM-based training to traditional didactic lecture (LEC) for teaching medical students to assess and manage critically ill patients with myocardial [...]

Family Presence at Resuscitation

From Kevin MD: Forty or so minutes had passed since the patient arrived and, as I had explained to the wife in the family room, time was not our friend. We had no other options of treatment to save this patient. “Please, stop,” the wife said. “Please, just let him go in peace.” A powerful [...]

Assault of a Paramedic as Augmented Reality

From Gizmodo: This augmented reality billboard in the Netherlands involuntarily pulls passersby into a scene depicting the brutal beating of a paramedic. As the shock wears off, the billboard delivers a brief message regarding the citizens’ role in prevention/cessation of violence.

Hospitals post wait time for ER service

From the Tennessean: As the average wait time to be seen in an emergency has grown to nearly an hour, hospitals around the country and Tennessee have stepped up initiatives to reduce wait times. But TriStar is one of the first in Nashville to actually tell patients the wait times. TriStar launched a campaign this [...]

Effect of Intensive Physician Oversight on A Prehospital Rapid-Sequence Intubation Program

From Prehospital Emergency Care: Objective. To examine the effects of adding close concurrent and retrospective physician oversight, consistent with National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) recommendations, to an existing regional prehospital rapid-sequence intubation (RSI) program. Methods. This study involved a retrospective cohort of patients receiving RSI between January 1, 2004, and July 31, 2008. On January [...]

New Initiative Designed to Reduce ER Visits

From the Chillicothe Gazette: The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has announced the kickoff of a new initiative designed to reduce the number of avoidable emergency room visits in the state. A kickoff meeting for IMPROVE (Implementing Medicaid Programs for the Reduction of Avoidable Visits to the Emergency Department) is scheduled for this morning [...]

Delayed Prehospital Implementation of the 2005 American Heart Association ECC Guidelines

From Prehospital Emergency Care: Introduction. In 2005, the American Heart Association (AHA) released guidelines to improve survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Objective. To determine if, and when, emergency medical services (EMS) agencies participating in the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) implemented these guidelines.Methods. We contacted 178 EMS agencies and completed structured telephone interviews with 176 [...]

Small-town Texas doctor, 81, can’t stay retired

From Chron.com: EDNA, Texas — Dr. Jefferson Flowers just couldn’t stay retired. After six failed attempts at quitting medicine, the 81-year-old West Texan, former rancher and founder of Citizens Medical Center’s first emergency room keeps going. “I can’t get it right,” he said, sitting on a stool in the Jackson County Hospital emergency room while [...]

Stroke Care in Georgia

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: She’s proud that her emergency department developed a stroke bay, time-saving protocols and that 18 percent of patients with ischemic strokes receive TPA (the clot-busting medication that must be administered within 41/2 hours of a stroke and improves patient recovery). “The national average is 2 percent, and 65 percent of [...]

$100K Grant to the Emergency Medicine Foundation to Study Binge Drinking

From BusinessWire: The Century Council, a not-for-profit organization funded by distillers dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking, provided a $100,000 research grant to the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) to learn more about the role of emergency departments with regard to college binge drinking. Dr. Suffoletto’s groundbreaking research project will examine the feasibility of [...]