The Real Truth Behind Patient Satisfaction Surveys

From Emergency Medicine News:

There is a lot of chatter lately within our specialty about patient satisfaction surveys. Many emergency physicians are affronted by the idea that patient perceptions of their practice style should come under such scrutiny.

Others say emergency medicine is different from other specialties because we have no continuity with our patients and see them under adverse circumstances: Illness, distress, and fear are inherent in the encounter. Still others focus on the possible statistical invalidity of survey methodologies like those of Press Ganey, Professional Research Consultants, and Gallup, or on their unsuitability for credentialing or as contract accountability measures.

While all of this is understandable in a era of crowding, rising expectations, and declining revenues and resources, we make a case for embracing these surveys, working to improve them, and using their results to improve your practice for the benefit of your patients, your ED staff, and your relationship with hospital administration.

Time to Reconsider Bicarb for EMS Treatment of Cardiac Arrest?

From JEMS:

After administering epinephrine and amiodarone, you consider sodium bicarbonate as directed by protocol. You recognize that over the past several years AHA has deemphasized the use of sodium bicarbonate. But what is the controversy? When is it appropriate to give sodium bicarbonate, and are paramedics using it to its fullest advantage?

ED Docs as Stroke Risk Screeners and Educators

From MedPage Today:

The recommendations also urged emergency physicians to identify patients at high risk for stroke and to consider making referrals, conducting screenings, and beginning preventive therapy.

The American Academy of Neurology endorsed the guidelines for neurologists as well.

Emergency department visits may be a “teachable moment” for patients, agreed Roger Bonomo, MD, director of stroke care at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Although “a busy ER is not the best place to provide such education,” he said in a statement sent to reporters, “it is a good enough place to start.”