Tag: acep
Seizures in Adults, Part 2
Seizures in Adults – Status Epilepticus In Seizures in Adults, Part 1, we discussed the workup, treatment, and disposition of ED patients with unprovoked seizures, as well as the route of medication administration for ED patients with known seizures. Although we frequently encounter patients with seizures in the emergency department, it is less common to […]
Read ArticleStampede! The Herd Mentality of Recruiting Season
When is peak recruiting season for emergency medicine residents? It depends. Everyone knows about when it starts and roughly when it ends. The first residents to sign usually do so in the summer, and the last are usually picking up the rear sometime in January (on the East Coast, that is). But it’s that start of […]
Read ArticleBecoming an Emergency Medicine Destination of Choice for Women
I’ve been an attending physician in emergency medicine in or around our nation’s capital for the last 16 years. Throughout my career as an African American woman, whether in academia or in leadership meetings, I have often been the only one. I’ve been the only woman often and even more frequently the only African-American. It […]
Read ArticleAre Emergency Medicine Residents Getting More Entrepreneurial?
One needn’t have traveled to Denver for the annual ACEP conference to know that the practice of emergency medicine is undergoing rapid change. But one thing I did sense there is that the new crop of emergency medicine physicians are more interested than ever in understanding and adapting to that change. Leaving the political pundits […]
Read ArticleStrategies to Address ED Boarding Must Include Strong Partnership Between Hospital and EM Group
Two recent articles on ED boarding and patient flow highlight growing awareness of the importance of this issue and its impact on what emergency physicians do every day. But while both articles suggest some ways of dealing with ED boarding, neither addresses directly the key ingredient to ensuring those strategies succeed: correct framing enabled by […]
Read ArticleHow to Communicate with Patients in the ER: First Seek to Understand
A new patient is placed in room 18. I read the chief complaint as I sign up to see the patient: 32-year-old male seeking detox from narcotics. Let’s be honest: most of us in emergency medicine are not thrilled to see this patient. First of all, in most cases, there is not much that we […]
Read ArticleThoughts on Choosing Wisely and Overuse
About five months ago nine physician specialty groups got together and decided to examine specific tests and procedures that are commonly used but not necessary in their respective fields. They named their organization “Choosing Wisely”, and compiled a list of over 45 specific recommendations on practices that should be curtailed. Examples included “lumbar series in […]
Read ArticleDone With Residency? 3 Pieces of Advice for New Emergency Medicine Physicians
January may be the universal month for new starts, new years resolutions, and self-reflection, but for those of us in medicine, it has always been July. Do you remember your first shift as an ED attending? I sure don’t. I’m sure I was nervous, overwhelmed, and scared I was going to hurt somebody or, perhaps […]
Read ArticleAdvance Directive: Allow Natural Death
The more I practice emergency medicine, the more I think about end of life care and the futility of much of what we do as patients try to complete their time on this earth. Many emergency physicians have been faced with the reality of “coding” an elderly nursing home patient because the family insists that […]
Read ArticleSaving Time in the ER, Even When It’s Not Life and Death
In the ER, we celebrate small improvements. After all, we work in a place where a few minutes saved could mean the difference between life and death. In other cases, shaving a few minutes off a process here or a protocol there may result in somewhat less dramatic payoff. Take our recent Kaizen project at […]
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