Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association loses three members

From the AZCentral: Arizona’s three largest hospital systems are leaving a statewide hospital lobbying group over concerns about how the group represents the large hospitals on legislative and regulatory issues. Abrazo Health Care, Banner Health and Dignity Health on Friday informed the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association that their membership will end effective March 1. [...]

Physicians Adapting Smartphone Use to Patient Care

From JEMS: Physicians are also texting information and photographs to each other using smartphones. What are the ramifications for patient privacy? It’s hospital policy that health care providers separate personally identifiable information from, for example, images, or X-rays of the patient when emailing, texting, or videoconferencing. Amar Patel, Director of WakeMed’s Center for Innovative Learning [...]

Hospital reorganization gives doctors more control

From the Des Moines Register: Mercy Medical Center Des Moines is reorganizing its administrative structure effective on Feb. 1 to give physicians more control, responsibility and accountability. “The current structure is very hospital-centric and less physician-centric,” said Mercy chief executive David Vellinga. The new structure places seven physicians in lead roles where they will partner [...]

Telemedicine: Now It’s A Must

From H&HN: Driven by a desire to improve the quality of and access to care, health systems both large and small are tapping into the power of telemedicine at a feverish pace. But clinical considerations aren’t the only market forces driving adoption. Supply-and-demand economics, the utility and reliability of new wireless devices and cost pressures [...]

Optimal patient communication in the ED taught via simulation

From MedicalXPress: Principal investigator and lead author Lynn Sweeney, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital, is a member of the hospital’s Simulation Center. Sweeney and her colleagues developed Project CLEAR! (Communication Leading to Excellence and Ameliorating Risk) to give structure and consistency to the manner in which staff communicate with each other and with patients. [...]

Switching from the Endotracheal to Laryrnygeal tube

From Anaesthesist via PubMed: Implementation of the laryngeal tube for prehospital airway management : Training of 1,069 emergency physicians and paramedics OBJECTIVE: The European Resuscitation Council recommends that only rescuers experienced and well-trained in airway management should perform endotracheal intubation. Less trained rescuers should use alternative airway devices instead. Therefore, a concept to train almost 1,100 [...]

Doctor Says Air Ambulance’s Design Is too Risky for Patients

From JEMS: Ed. This is an AW 139, not ORNGE’s exact ship. ORNGE’s top doctor has checked out the medical interior of the air ambulance’s multimillion-dollar helicopters and found a disaster waiting to happen. Dr. Bruce Sawadsky, in a report written Monday, calls the cramped interior of the brand new AW 139 helicopter a “high [...]

Shock First or CPR First?

From Resuscitation: A Randomized Trial of Compression First or Analyze First Strategies in Patients with Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Results from an Asian Community Background: It is still under debate whether a period of cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be performed prior to rhythm analysis for defibrillation for out of hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA). This study compared outcomes of [...]

Oslo government district bombing and Utøya island shooting July 22, 2011: The immediate prehospital emergency medical service response

From the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine (link is to the full text article) Background: On July 22, 2011, a single perpetrator killed 77 people in a car bomb attack and a shooting spree incident in Norway. This article describes the emergency medical service (EMS) response elicited by the two incidents. Methods: A [...]

Local E.R. docs work to curb “doctor shopping”

From KFVS: Doctors at one local southern Illinois emergency room say some patients are not coming looking for help, they’re looking for drugs. It’s called “doctor shopping” and the director of the emergency department at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale says it’s become a big concern. Dr. Joseph Haake says the fast-paced nature of an E.R. [...]