Quality Efficiency Utilization
Death at UMass Memorial: Is the Problem “Alarm Fatigue,” or Something Bigger?
September 27th, 2011by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
Last week, the Boston Globe reported on the second death in four years at UMass Memorial Medical Center related to “alarm fatigue.” Anyone who works in a hospital, particularly an area like an emergency department where critical patients are seen, can understand how a tragedy like this happens. Monitor alarms go off all the time. The […]
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CT Scan Use Increasing. Now, What?
August 31st, 2011by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
A recent review of data from the University of Michigan Health System revealed what many of us working to make Emergency Departments more efficient already knew: more emergency doctors are ordering more CT scans. Using data from 1996 through 2007, researchers found nearly 1 in 7 ED patients now get a CT scan. The rate […]
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Emergency Medicine – Where Do We Go From Here?
May 30th, 2011by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
We cost too much. We take care of URIs and ankle sprains. We don’t coordinate care well. We use too many resources. We’ve all heard it in the media, even our President taking passing shots at the usefulness and cost effectiveness of emergency care. Of course the reality is federal law requires us to see […]
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Prescription Monitoring Programs Changes Opioid Prescribing Behavior – AKA Sometimes a Little Big Brother is a Good Thing
October 6th, 2010by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
A recent article in Annals of Emergency Medicine involves the change in prescribing patterns when a prescription monitoring program is put in place. After reviewing past prescriptions, emergency physicians changed opioid prescribing plans for 41% of patients. Many states have instituted prescription monitoring programs to limit potential fraud and abuse of controlled substances. In 2006, Ohio instituted a […]
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Science vs. Art In Medicine And The Use Of Medical Scribes
November 5th, 2009by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
Are we losing the art of medicine as science advances? One of the challenges we constantly face in delivering clinically compassionate care is to continue to ensure that appropriately skilled people are performing critical jobs. Just as important is to continue remove the non–essential tasks from those critical individuals so they may focus on the […]
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