Life in the ER
Code Black and the Changing Culture of Emergency Medicine
September 24th, 2015by: USACS
“The romance isn’t gone. But it’s definitely going.” That was the verdict from Dr. Patsy McNeil, MEP Health’s Director of Patient Satisfaction, as we discussed the documentary film Code Black at a recent Leadership Academy meeting. The film chronicles a handful of emergency medicine residents training at one of the busiest emergency departments in the […]
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Lessons From My Last Hospital
September 16th, 2015by: Dr. Anoop Kumar
When you work with a team of great people for several years, you grow together. You learn together. You succeed and fail together. I had the opportunity to be part of such a team in the ED for the past several years. Recently, I moved to a new hospital, which has given me time to […]
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The Story of MEP Book Excerpt: Dr. Jesse Irwin
July 2nd, 2015by: Dr. Jesse Irwin
Editor’s note: the following is an excerpt from a book of stories from USACS founding partner MEP Health. The book chronicles stories about their providers’ lives, values, motivations, and career paths. MEP Health joined USACS in December 2015. Four years of med school, five years in the Navy, and three at residency at George Washington—and […]
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Emergency Medicine Physicians At the Center of Achieving the Triple Aim
March 12th, 2015by: Dr. Vipul Kella
It is amazing to me how far emergency medicine has come as a specialty. Until the 1970s, emergency rooms were staffed by low-level resident interns who moonlighted for extra money or physicians who couldn’t find work elsewhere. After finally getting recognized as a specialty, the specialty still spent a few decades finding its way: developing […]
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What Does Patient Choice Have to Do With Integrated Care?
February 18th, 2015by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
Recently I was taking care of a gentleman in one of our Emergency Departments named Paul. Paul is 55 with a history of alcohol abuse. He also had some psychiatric problems, and was diagnosed with rectal cancer approximately one year ago. He was placed in one of our psychiatric rooms as he was visibly intoxicated and […]
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Doctor Patient: What Happened When I Got Cancer
December 16th, 2014by: Dr. Craig Mittleman
It was last Summer in July when I became sick. It was a range of not unusual upper respiratory symptoms, but as time progressed and my symptoms didn’t respond to the usual combination of steroids and antibiotics, I became concerned. I’d developed a more distinct pain in my chest, and became increasingly mindful about those […]
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The New World of Patient Satisfaction: Even Ice Chips Matter
December 5th, 2014by: Dr. David Klein
“My wife died uncomfortable and alone. She died thirsty!” The man who spoke those words came in to the Emergency Room recently where I was working a shift. He was accompanied by his wife, a 70-year-old with high sugar, weakness, and nausea. The team worked to get her seen under the presumption that her diabetes […]
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Inside the Media Training for ER Docs to Learn to Talk About Ebola
November 3rd, 2014by: USACS
It was toward the end of the second day of the largest conference in the country for emergency physicians, when the official Twitter account for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) sent out this little nugget of truth: #Ebola is not the only topic at #ACEP14. It just feels that way.
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What US Hospitals and Healthcare Providers Should Take Away from the Ebola Outbreak
October 20th, 2014by: Dr. David Klein
Among reams of coverage on the ebola outbreak, Politico just published a characteristic story with the headline, “In the world of ebola, no room for error.” The only problem is that is as soon as you introduce a human element to any system, there will be error. That’s the reality that healthcare leaders across the […]
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Why Big Data in Healthcare is Failing, and What Can Be Done About It
August 19th, 2014by: Dr. Jason Giffi
A few days ago a colleague of mine was inching south through the mother of all traffic jams: 60 straight miles of construction work on I-95 just south Washington DC. The three-lane highway was jammed. Route 1, which runs parallel to I-95 was also jammed. Cars were stalled in the middle of the highway having […]
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