Tag: emergency-room
In the Emergency Department: Recognizing and Responding to Signs of Human Trafficking
February 9th, 2018by: USACS
It is estimated that more than 20 million people worldwide are victims of exploitation and of sex trafficking or labor trafficking. Human trafficking is not the same as human smuggling. Smuggling is a violation of immigration laws. Trafficking is a violation of human rights. Victims are females and males, children and adults, foreign nationals and […]
read articlePosted in Life in the ER
Intubation Tips, Part 2
March 23rd, 2017by: USACS
Hopefully, you have already read about NO DESAT and the importance of pre-oxygenation before intubation in Intubation Tips, Part 1. We want to share some more tips that optimize the safety and success of this high-risk procedure. In a great intubation lecture by Dr. Levitan, he covers a wide variety of airway topics. It will […]
read articlePosted in Life in the ER, Patient Satisfaction
Intubation Tips, Part 1
March 23rd, 2017by: USACS
NO DESAT is an acronym created by Dr. Richard Levitan, a nationally recognized authority on airway management, for Nasal Oxygenation During Efforts at Securing a Tube. This very simple concept will allow you to have more time to intubate while maintaining adequate oxygenation. Although nasal oxygenation is a key component of hypoxia prevention during intubation, there are […]
read articlePosted in Hospitalist Medicine, Life in the ER, Skilled Nursing
Addiction and Pain: Who Gets a Script?
February 27th, 2012by: Dr. Julian Orenstein
As if we as ER docs didn’t have enough on our plates already with proliferating drug shortages, adapting to the Affordable Care Act, the capriciousness of a new and very temperamental EMR, and my teenage daughter’s mood swings (wait, how did that get in there?), we also find ourselves under the microscope for our treatment […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization
We Want Our Healthcare Like We Want our Fast Food
February 24th, 2012by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
With due respect to those patient souls among us, America is, in general, an impatient nation. That includes how we think about our healthcare. This is why I read with some interest, and some amusement, stories like “A real ‘doc fix,’” published this week in the New York Times. Basically it says we need to […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization
Maryland’s Health Information Exchange Helps Take the Blinders off Emergency Care
February 21st, 2012by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
The headline on a Washington Post story last week was enough to give almost any healthcare consumer a moment’s pause: “Maryland Hospitals to Share Patient Data.” To which a patient might respond, “Wait, You Mean Hospitals Don’t Share Data Now?” We see it in the Emergency Department all the time. Patients come in who have […]
read articlePosted in Future of Healthcare
Sometimes the Best Emergency Medicine is No Medicine at All
February 3rd, 2012by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
I was recently reminded by a patient experience that the best medicine sometimes is no medicine at all. I cared for a young woman who had been seen the last few nights complaining of shortness of breath. When it was obvious that she had normal breath sounds, no wheezing and normal oxygen level I started […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization
When an Emergency Room Gets New Management, Relationships Come First
January 20th, 2012by: Dr. Noah Keller
It’s no big surprise that there is anxiety when a new management group takes over an Emergency Department. The question is, what can our group do to effectively confront that anxiety? At midnight on December 31st, 2011, our group took over management of the emergency room at Bristol Hospital. The previous group had managed the ER there […]
read articlePosted in Hospital Partnership, Leadership, Life in the ER
Twenty Years of Change and the “View from the Box”
December 23rd, 2011by: Dr. Julian Orenstein
Once, a really long time ago, before blogs if you can conceive of such a time, I embarked on a part-time writing career. My subject matter was the parade of frailty, the courage and the just plain bizarre that were to be found daily – hourly – in the ER. My first collection of essays […]
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Does Emergency Medicine Really Matter?
November 15th, 2011by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
I’m always curious when people ask what I do and I say I work in an ER: what exactly do they imagine I do there? They may picture us treating sniffles, ankle sprains, and the uninsured. At least, that’s what some in media and politics would have them imagine. You want to know what I […]
read articlePosted in Future of Healthcare, Life in the ER