Pilot killed in Calif. crash was ER doctor headed on humanitarian mission to Mexico

From the Washington Post:

Officials have identified a 66-year-old pilot killed in a plane crash as a northern California emergency room doctor who was leaving for a humanitarian medical mission in Mexico.

Nevada County coroner’s officials say James Richard Ungar of Yreka (wy-REE’-kuh) was killed on impact when his Piper Comanche hit a hangar at the Truckee-Tahoe Airport in Truckee shortly after takeoff Thursday morning.

An Auburn-based nonprofit called Los Medicos Voladores, or The Flying Doctors, says Ungar was a volunteer pilot who flew doctors to Mexico and Central America.

Five ways telemedicine is driving down healthcare costs

From Healthcare IT News:

Telemedicine and mHealth have the potential to help the healthcare system meet the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s triple aim to simultaneously increase the quality of care, improve the health of populations and reduce the per capita cost of care.

“Collectively, investments in telemedicine and mHealth have great potential to reduce healthcare system costs,” said Adam C. Powell, president of Payer+Provider Syndicate, a consulting firm that uses techniques from health services research to bring about change in the health insurance and hospital industries.

Emergency medical service hospital prenotification is associated with improved evaluation and treatment of acute ischemic stroke

From PubMed:

Background- The benefits of intravenous tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA) in acute ischemic stroke are time-dependent. Emergency medical services (EMS) hospital prenotification of an incoming patient with potential stroke may provide a means of reducing evaluation and treatment times and improving treatment rates; yet, available data are limited. Methods and Results- We examined 371 988 patients with acute ischemic stroke transported by EMS and enrolled in Get With The Guidelines-Stroke from April 1, 2003, to March 31, 2011. Prenotification occurred in 249 197 (67.0%) of EMS-transported patients. Among eligible patients arriving by 2 hours, patients with EMS prenotification were more likely to be treated with tPA within 3 hours (82.8% versus 79.2%, absolute difference +3.5%, P<0.0001, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale-documented cohort; 73.0% versus 64.0%, absolute difference +9.0%, P<0.0001, overall cohort). Patients with EMS prenotification had shorter door-to-imaging times (26 minutes versus 31 minutes, P<0.0001), shorter door-to-needle times (78 minutes versus 80 minutes, P<0.0001), and shorter symptom onset-to-needle times (141 minutes versus 145 minutes, P<0.0001). In multivariable and modified Poisson regression analyses accounting for the clustering of patients within hospitals, use of EMS prenotification was independently associated with greater likelihood of door-to-imaging times ≤25 minutes, door-to-needle times for tPA ≤60 minutes, onset-to-needle times ≤120 minutes, and tPA use within 3 hours. Conclusions- EMS hospital prenotification is associated with improved evaluation, timelier stroke treatment, and more eligible patients treated with tPA. These results support the need for initiatives targeted at increasing EMS prenotification rates as a mechanism from improving quality of care and outcomes in stroke.

Emergency room visit dooms New Orleans shooting victim to federal conviction

From NOLA:

…while loading Stewart onto a stretcher at University Hospital, an emergency room doctor noticed a Taurus .357 caliber revolver in Stewart’s back pants pocket and reported it to hospital police.

Nearly 18 months later, Stewart stood in an orange jumpsuit before U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown and pleaded guilty on Thursday to possession of a firearm by a felon.

Photo: E.R. Nurses Allegedly Shop For Shoes While Child Waits For Care

#2 in the series. Coincidence?

From The Gothamist:

A patient seeking care at the pediatric emergency room at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center last night described an ordeal that allegedly began with eye-rolling and cat-calling, and culminated in these two nurses seemingly browsing for shoes online for around 20 minutes while a toddler with a violent cough sat untreated. “The boy’s mother said they had been there for five hours,” says Sean Walsh, a sophomore at Columbia who witnessed the encounter. “She asked what was wrong and a nurse pulled up the kid’s file and said, ‘Oh, we’ve made an error, that shouldn’t have happened.’ The mother ended up walking out of the ER with her child after that.”

ER doctor opens ladies shoe store

#1 in a series….

From The Highlander:

An emergency room doctor looking for a change of pace has opened up a business opportunity in Marble Falls – a woman’s shoe store.

Joe Mantheiy, from Marble Falls, has worked as an ER doctor at Scott & White Hospital—Llano for 28 years and was looking for a change of pace.

“I enjoy being a doctor, but it’s all stress — all negative,” Mantheiy said. “This store is my happy business.”

Missouri Supreme Court overturned $350,000 limit on noneconomic damages in malpractice suits

From MedPage Today:

The Missouri Supreme Court has overturned that state’s $350,000 limit on noneconomic damages awarded in malpractice suits, a staple of its 2005 medical liability reform law.

The state’s highest court on Tuesday ruled 4-3 that limits on noneconomic damages were unconstitutional according to the Missouri constitution because they violated a citizen’s right to a jury trial.

“Such a limitation was not permitted at common law when Missouri’s constitution first was adopted in 1820 and, therefore, violates the right to trial by jury,” Chief Justice Richard Teitelman wrote in a 27-page opinion.