Emergency medicine

2,327 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 72

The malpractice risk of volunteer medical coverage at sporting events

May 16, 2012May 16, 2012

From Outside Online, an article about how physicians are increasingly hesitant to provide volunteer medical coverage at athletic events: "Last year, 13 Americans died during running races, and another eight while competing in triathlons. While those numbers might seem troubling,…

From Outside Online, an article about how physicians are increasingly hesitant to provide volunteer medical coverage at athletic events:

“Last year, 13 Americans died during running races, and another eight while competing in triathlons. While those numbers might seem troubling, the deaths are attributable mostly to the booming popularity of endurance sports—13 million Americans enter running races each year, and 2.3 million compete in triathlons. But the rising participation and the …

Health policy

Repairing the tear in health care’s safety net with social media

Mark Britton

May 8, 2012May 8, 2012

The nation’s “safety net” hospitals are designed to ensure that uninsured, lower income and indigent populations receive adequate medical care – a noble and necessary function within the U.S. healthcare system. No one dedicated to the field of care giving can deny the importance of providing appropriate medical care for this population. The safety net is literally a lifeline for many in need.

But for all of the vital and positive …

Physician voices

Death with dignity in the emergency department

Dike Drummond, MD

May 8, 2012May 8, 201220

The ambulance crew rolled him into my ER breathless in his pajamas, O2 mask on his face, gasping for air, his short cropped hair a mess, standing straight up. Eugene was what the staff called a "frequent flyer." As the…

It was a busy evening. The bays were full of the usual cuts, broken bones and …

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Conditions and diseases

Injectable epinephrine often isn’t used quickly enough

Paul M. Ehrlich, MD

May 5, 2012May 5, 20123

Mark Twain once said, "The difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug." He was referring to the power of language. With an allergist, the consequences of the right and wrong…

Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between lightning and lightning bug.” He was referring to the power of language. With an allergist, the consequences of the right and wrong words have measurable consequences, ranging from comfort to chronic misery, to medical payments spent wisely or wasted, and sometimes life or death.

For example, people with lactose intolerance will mistakenly believe …

Physician voices

A trauma surgeon on the pointlessness of gang violence

Bryan Hubbard, MD

May 3, 2012May 3, 20122

Another call night in downtown L.A. It had not been a particularly eventful day: the usual offering of people hit by cars, falling off of things, and victims of man-made violence. Some injuries happen as a result of an accident, some as a result of carelessness, and of course many happen because of an intentional act. At about 1am the trauma pager went off; the text announced a “Level 1 …

Conditions and diseases

When a heart attack is textbook perfect, it can be a beautiful thing

Stewart Segal, MD

May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Participating in a patient’s first heart attack can be an extremely stressful event. Thirty years ago, I was an ER doc. At the end of a typical shift, I would come home to my wife and, often, would remark about…

Thirty years later, I’m the family doc and heart attacks are unnerving. Yes, I know what to do. We …

Physician voices

Every emergency medicine shift teaches something

Marlene Buckler, MD

April 28, 2012Apr 28, 20125

Tonight a 17 year-old boy came to the emergency room complaining of headache. As I entered his room, in my usual hurry to do an assessment as expeditiously as possible, so as to get on to the next case and attempt to avoid the inevitable backup of patients so common in our ER, I was struck by the vulnerable demeanor of the patient before me. The triage nurse’s report assured …

Physician voices

Death arrives in many different packages

Monica Williams-Murphy, MD

April 25, 2012Apr 25, 20127

The sage doctor who stood at the bedside as I held my dying grandmother said, “We seem to die one organ at a time.” I, however, have come to believe that we are too focused on the failing of the…

Death comes in many different ways, in many different packages. Sometimes it arrives wrapped thoughtlessly in advanced dementia, other times the package …

Health policy

5 key trends to look for in the emergency department

Wesley Curry, MD

April 24, 2012Apr 24, 20122

Patients have been arriving at the doors of emergency departments in increasing numbers over the past decade, and this trend will only grow in the future. I believe there are five key factors that suggest every ED should brace itself…

As the CEO of a physician group that provides medical care to over 4 million patients per year, I have the opportunity to study in great …

Physician voices

The future of medicine for aspiring young doctors

Edwin Leap, MD

April 11, 2012Apr 11, 201214

Calhoun Lecture Series Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University Thank you for the invitation to speak tonight. I’m very humbled to stand before you. And what a delight to speak to people who are neither bleeding, intoxicated nor asking for Percocet!…

March 29, 2012

Calhoun Lecture Series
Strom Thurmond Institute, Clemson University

Thank you for the invitation to speak tonight. I’m very humbled to stand before you. And what a delight to speak to people who are neither bleeding, intoxicated nor asking for Percocet! And in a setting where no one will burst through the back door on a stretcher!

As you know, I’m an emergency physician …

Physician voices

The obviousness of long waiting times in the emergency department

StorytellERdoc, MD

April 3, 2012Apr 3, 20128

Emergency, as per the all-knowing Webster, is defined as an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. Furthermore, an emergency is also defined as an urgent need for assistance or relief. These definitions sound…

These definitions sound pretty spot-on, right? When thinking about emergency room settings, even, one can easily correlate the words of Webster to what one would …

Health technology

Small opportunities to use mobile technology in medicine

Karim Jessa, MD

March 30, 2012Mar 30, 20122

As citizens of the 21st century, we seem to have adapted personal technology for every conceivable use -- Siri, the iPhone’s newest darling, can literally remind us to call a proctologist. But as physicians, we may be missing some of…

As citizens of the 21st century, we seem to have adapted personal technology for every conceivable use — Siri, the iPhone’s newest darling, can literally remind us to call a proctologist. But as physicians, we may be missing some of the best opportunities to derive “meaningful use” from technology.

I am an emergency physician, and a few nights ago I worked a shift in the ER. It was a typical, …

Health policy

Doctors and hospitals are cheated during rate negotiations

Myles Riner, MD

March 29, 2012Mar 29, 20128

Have you ever been in a negotiation with a health plan for a network participation contract and had the impression that the plan knew all the rates that you had agreed to in confidential negotiations with other health plans? Allow me to reassure you: you are not being paranoid. It is quite likely that the plan you are negotiating with knows exactly what rates and terms you have agreed to …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 32-year-old man is disoriented, combative, and agitated

mksap

March 25, 2012Mar 25, 2012

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 32-year-old man is brought to the emergency department after becoming disoriented, combative, and agitated earlier that day. He is accompanied by a friend,…

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 32-year-old man is brought to the emergency department after becoming disoriented, combative, and agitated earlier that day. He is accompanied by a friend, who states that the patient has a history of alcohol and drug abuse, including inhalants.

On physical examination, the patient is uncooperative and …

Medical education

How working as a scribe prepared me for medical school

Steven Krager

March 7, 2012Mar 7, 20122

After undergrad, and before starting medical school, I worked for two years as scribe in the emergency department. I followed emergency physicians and completed their charts as they saw patients. I would also remind the physicians of various tasks to…

One of the reasons I wanted the job was to gain experience in medicine, first as a …

Health policy

Denying payment for unnecessary emergency room visits

Douglas Perednia, MD

March 5, 2012Mar 5, 201232

Just when American healthcare system seems so dysfunctional that it seems impossible to imagine how it could be screwed up further, a decision is made that restores one’s faith in the creativity of Man. But before you run out of guesses as to which particular decision we’re talking about today, we’ll just blurt it out. We are referring to a recent decision by Washington State Medicaid to deny payment for …

Physician voices

Extubating the overzealously intubated patient

bongi, MD

March 5, 2012Mar 5, 20123

One of the curses of kalafong (hell) was that there was no neurosurgical service. This meant us mere general surgeons had to handle the many head injuries that came in. So, for example, when some guy decided to cave in…

One of the curses of kalafong (hell) was that there was no neurosurgical service. This meant us mere general surgeons had to handle the many head injuries that came in.

So, for example, when some guy decided to cave in the head of his so-called best friend with a five iron on the golf course because they had started with the nineteenth hole instead of the first, we ended up either …

Patient voices

Why physicians should care about Amanda Trujillo

J. Doe, RN

February 25, 2012Feb 25, 2012214

For the past month, the case of Amanda Trujillo has resonated deeply among nurses, triggering an avalanche of postings on Facebook, Twitter and in the nursing blogosphere. Trujillo is the Arizona nurse who was fired in April 2011 after providing education and making a hospice care consult request for an end-stage liver disease patient. This patient was slotted for pre-transplant evaluation …

Conditions and diseases

Avoid malpractice while treating minor head trauma in children

Maxwell S. Kennerly

February 10, 2012Feb 10, 20128

In October 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 60% increase in “emergency department visits for sports– and recreation–related traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, among children and adolescents” over the past decade. That’s good news: as the CDC’s press release said, they believe the increase was due in part to “growing awareness among parents and coaches, and the public as a whole, about the need for individuals with a suspected …

Emergency medicine

Articles, page 72

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