Emergency medicine

2,327 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 31

Average physicians are extraordinary

January 3, 2019Jan 3, 20193

I am just another average physician. It wasn’t my first return from maternity leave, but this busy ED shift wasn’t going well. I kept putting off breast-pumping to complete “just one more thing.” Then my son’s school secretary called. I…

I am just another average physician.

It wasn’t my first return from maternity leave, but this busy ED shift wasn’t going well. I kept putting off breast-pumping to complete “just one more thing.” Then my son’s school secretary called. I had told our nanny the wrong pick-up time. She wasn’t answering her phone. I was disappointed in myself and frustrated that I couldn’t leave. But I am a physician — I …

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Average physicians are extraordinary

Physician voices

68 laws of the ER

Rada Jones, MD

January 3, 2019Jan 3, 20197

1. Murphy’s Law as it applies to the ER: If something can go bad, it will do so in a hurry. If it can’t possibly go bad, it will still find a way. 2. Clock’s First Rule: All the patients…

1. Murphy’s Law as it applies to the ER: If something can go bad, it will do so in a hurry. If it can’t possibly go bad, it will still find a way.

2. Clock’s First Rule: All the patients will crash at the same time. Usually when the computer system goes down.

3. Clock’s Second Rule: The sickest patients will come just before the shift change.

4. Haste’s Theorem: The healthier the …

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68 laws of the ER

Physician voices

Just another day in the ER

Irv Danesh, MD

December 29, 2018Dec 29, 2018

An excerpt from Doctor Brooklyn: Love & Life at the End of a Knife. “Goddamn, you’re getting married? Are you outta your mind?” “I’m going to tell Goldie your advice on marriage. I predict you will spend the next twenty…

An excerpt from Doctor Brooklyn: Love & Life at the End of a Knife.

“Goddamn, you’re getting married? Are you outta your mind?”

“I’m going to tell Goldie your advice on marriage. I predict you will spend the next twenty years sleeping on that very lumpy couch you own,” Zach said to Ike.

“You are correct, so I’m going to tell Goldie, if you ever mention this conversation to her, that you …

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Just another day in the ER

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KevinMD’s 2018 top posts: Highlighting the voices of practicing clinicians

Kevin Pho, MD

December 27, 2018Dec 27, 2018

With over 22 million page views for the year, thank you for making 2018 such a success. KevinMD continues to be the web's leading platform that highlights the voice of the many who intersect with our health care system, but…

With over 22 million page views for the year, thank you for making 2018 such a success.

KevinMD continues to be the web’s leading platform that highlights the voice of the many who intersect with our health care system, but are rarely heard elsewhere: physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients who can share their insight and tell their stories.

This year, I’m …

Physician voices

A patient sues when a DNR is ignored

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

December 23, 2018Dec 23, 2018

A New Mexico woman, suffering from Dercum’s disease (adiposis dolorosa) which causes painful fatty tumors, is suing a Santa Fe hospital and an emergency physician claiming she was the victim of two negligent acts in 2016. One, according to the…

One, according to the Albuquerque Journal, she told hospital personnel she was allergic to Dilaudid but went into cardiac arrest after receiving an injection of the drug.

Two, despite the presence of a lawfully …

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A patient sues when a DNR is ignored

Conditions and diseases

AEDs save lives: Why more people should know how to use them

Nathan Scherer, DO

December 18, 2018Dec 18, 2018

Did you know that over 300,000 people a year visit a doctor for symptoms of anaphylaxis — yet, thankfully, between 1999-2010 only 2,458 died from anaphylaxis? Compare that with the fact that each year anywhere between 180,000 to 450,000 people…

Did you know that over 300,000 people a year visit a doctor for symptoms of anaphylaxis — yet, thankfully, between 1999-2010 only 2,458 died from anaphylaxis?

Compare that with the fact that each year anywhere between 180,000 to 450,000 people in the United States die from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). While both anaphylaxis and SCA can be fatal, the dramatic difference in survivability between these two events is that the public …

Physician voices

Are scribes the solution to our documentation woes?

Anonymous

December 17, 2018Dec 17, 201822

In response to the increasing burdens of administrative work and cumbersome charting levied upon healthcare providers in recent years, medical scribes have been touted as a potential solution for streamlining the documentation process. Interest in the use of scribes has certainly been increasing, with the American College of Medical Scribe Specialists estimating that the number of medical scribes nationally will increase from 15,000 in 2014 to more than 100,000 by …

Physician voices

What my dog taught me about my patients’ feelings

Elizabeth Rubin Ribak, MD

December 14, 2018Dec 14, 2018

My puppy looked sick. Not just any sick but “get an attending, two large bore IVs, start fluids, get her on a monitor, move her to the resuscitation bay” sick. And I was scared. “You have to take her to the vet!” I pleaded with my husband as I sprinted down the street to get home to get the keys to the car.

As I sat at home waiting for updates …

Physician voices

Emergency physicians: You rock!

Sonali Mantoo, MD

December 9, 2018Dec 9, 2018

I am a critical care physician and spend a good amount of time in the emergency room seeing consults. As an internal medicine resident, we were often in the ER, admitting new patients. In my three years of residency, we spent only two to four weeks working in the emergency room. It was the one time I had an insider’s view of life as an ER physician. And, man, was …

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Emergency physicians: You rock!

Health policy

Money will be lost in health care. This is true no matter how we describe it.

Edwin Leap, MD

December 3, 2018Dec 3, 20183

Does anyone in medicine, particularly emergency medicine, understand why we lose money? Why we have to push those metrics so hard to capture every dime? I mean, we’re constantly reminded that satisfaction scores, and time-stamps and time to door, time…

Does anyone in medicine, particularly emergency medicine, understand why we lose money? Why we have to push those metrics so hard to capture every dime?

I mean, we’re constantly reminded that satisfaction scores, and time-stamps and time to door, time to needle, time to discharge, reduced “left without being seen” scores are connected to the money we make.

Medicine now is far less about the wonder of the body, the ravages of …

Physician voices

How to reduce burnout in emergency medicine

Health eCareers

December 1, 2018Dec 1, 2018

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. As rewarding as working in emergency medicine can be, it also comes with some significant potential downsides. According to some recent studies, stress and burnout rates in the emergency room are some…

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.

As rewarding as working in emergency medicine can be, it also comes with some significant potential downsides. According to some recent studies, stress and burnout rates in the emergency room are some of the worst in the medical field. But don’t let that dampen your enthusiasm. Managing the proper …

Conditions and diseases

A proximate cause of wrongful death

Tom Combs, MD

November 27, 2018Nov 27, 20184

An excerpt from Wrongful Deaths. “We will name Memorial Hospital, Dr. Julie Stone, Dr. Vijay Gupta, and ICU nurse Tracy Miller in a malpractice suit involving the wrongful death of Ivy Jackson.” Venjer appeared apologetic. “But Dr. Torrins is correct.…

An excerpt from Wrongful Deaths.

“We will name Memorial Hospital, Dr. Julie Stone, Dr. Vijay Gupta, and ICU nurse Tracy Miller in a malpractice suit involving the wrongful death of Ivy Jackson.” Venjer appeared apologetic. “But Dr. Torrins is correct. It is early, and we will pursue all the facts and revisit our plans in due course.” He closed his …

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A proximate cause of wrongful death

Physician voices

Make peace with stress in the ER

Health eCareers

November 24, 2018Nov 24, 2018

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. Working in the emergency department or emergency room is not for health care practitioners who want to just chill. Although television’s portrayal of the ER on dramas like “ER” or “Chicago Med”…

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.

Working in the emergency department or emergency room is not for health care practitioners who want to just chill. Although television’s portrayal of the ER on dramas like “ER” or “Chicago Med” is admittedly high on drama, life and work in the ER really are high pressure.

In 2016, the …

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Make peace with stress in the ER

Patient voices

A prayer from an emergency physician

Edwin Leap, MD

November 22, 2018Nov 22, 20185

Dear Lord Jesus, I just finished my shift in the ER. Of course, you knew that. But I was thinking about how often I’m ungrateful and irritable. I know that I complain about rules and regulations, about time-stamps and metrics…

Dear Lord Jesus,

I just finished my shift in the ER. Of course, you knew that. But I was thinking about how often I’m ungrateful and irritable. I know that I complain about rules and regulations, about time-stamps and metrics and satisfaction scores and all the rest. I know I’m that guy. I get annoyed by people who are annoying. (I’m glad you don’t.) I get annoyed when I’m tired, and …

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A prayer from an emergency physician

Physician voices

The risks of co-signing PA and NP charts

Edwin Leap, MD

November 13, 2018Nov 13, 201816

We all know that there’s a remarkable shortage of physicians in America and that it’s growing worse. This is especially true in primary care but it’s present across all specialties. This shortage alone is a significant stress on practicing physicians. But when it is coupled with corporatization, the increasing complexity of medical care, unrelenting electronic charting requirements and the explosion of administrative tasks, physicians barely keep up each day.

This is one of the …

Health policy

What administrators don’t understand about urgent care centers

Richard Young, MD

November 12, 2018Nov 12, 2018

Several years ago, a group of us concerned about health care costs and outcomes met with some local HR benefit managers. One was the head HR person of a city. In part of the conversation, she raved about a local chain of urgent care centers. She loved the fact that she could go to one after work to get her steroid shot for her colds. I had enough experience dealing …

Physician voices

Make your 15 minutes with a patient memorable

Adeleke Adesina, DO

November 11, 2018Nov 11, 20182

Compassion. Empathy. These are some of the words commonly thrown around in medical school and residency training. If you ask most medical students why they chose medicine, they will respond with something like this: “ I love to help people,”…

I remembered when I entered medical school, one of my professors said, “In order to be good a doctor, you must be compassionate and …

Conditions and diseases

Explain hemoglobin A1c in 2 minutes

Adeleke Adesina, DO

November 5, 2018Nov 5, 20183

It was a slow day in the emergency department. I was sitting across the bedside from my patient who came in for a left forearm infection checkup. She was a 73-year-old female with a history of diabetes. She was elegant and soft-spoken. Prior to examining her wound, which had been worsening, I asked her what her A1c number is. She wondered what an A1c number was, and I explained that …

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Explain hemoglobin A1c in 2 minutes

Physician voices

Expanding the scope of emergency medicine

Maria Aini, MD

October 28, 2018Oct 28, 2018

Yes, this is a piece on observation medicine as the expansion of our specialty. My oh my, have things changes since my days of training where I learned to care for all comers irrespective of their money, background, color or creed. I learned to stabilize, evaluate and treat then admit or discharge. Clearly, I’m simplifying though, historically, our disposition decision was binary, patient in or out.

Then overtime as I practiced emergency medicine (EM) …

Physician voices

How do I keep my kids out of the ER this Halloween?

Irene Tien, MD

October 28, 2018Oct 28, 2018

I have worked most of the last 20 Halloweens in the pediatric emergency department (ED), so I’ve seen how a split second can ruin your child’s holiday. Here are some things you can do to plan ahead and avoid the…

1. Avoid trip hazards

It’s a recipe for mishap. Your child is in a costume that may have long hems or unusual shoes or a mask limiting their normal vision. A …

Emergency medicine

Articles, page 31

Real physician voices, twice a week

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