Some people with allergies experience fits of sneezing, watery eyes, itchy rash and other unpleasantness. But some people experience a life-threatening reaction called anaphylactic shock, a whole-body response to an allergen that can swell the lips, tongue and throat, and threaten the ability to breathe. Anaphylaxis, which by definition involves at least two body organ….
Continue ReadingEmergency Medicine
Urgent Care Around the Corner
An emergency, by definition, is a situation that needs to be addressed immediately. When the emergency is about illness or injury, people often head for a hospital emergency room. A few years ago, we wrote about a Harvard study that showed that longer ER waits were causing more serious problems, and even death. Unfortunately, ER….
Continue ReadingPsychiatric Patients Get the Short End of the ER Stick
The hospital’s emergency room is filled with patients representing a range of urgent problems. The kid with a broken ankle, courtesy a bumpy slide at second base. The woman wearing dark sunglasses and cradling her migrained head. The guy pressing a towel into the web of his hand to stanch the blood from a knife….
Continue ReadingWhen Hospitals Get It Right
Isn’t it refreshing to read about a medical adventure in which all parties got it right? “Doing Things Right: Why Three Hospitals didn’t Harm My Wife” is the tale told by Michael L. Millenson on the Kaiser Health News website earlier this month. “My wife was lying in the back of an ambulance, dazed and….
Continue ReadingGrowing Numbers of Physician Assistants May Help Cut Assembly Line Feel for Patients
It’s increasingly common that when you visit the doctor you’ll be seen first, and maybe exclusively, not by the person with the M.D. degree, but by another trained medical professional. According to a report commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2009 nearly half of all office-based physicians practiced with nurse practitioners….
Continue ReadingEmergency Room Use of CT Scans Soars
Another episode in the if-you-build-it-they-will-come (and pay) story of medical technology has been written recently by hospital emergency rooms. In 1996, about 3 in 100 ER patients were given a CT scan; by 2007, the figure had grown nearly fivefold, to 1 in 7 ER patients, according to a new study in the Annals of….
Continue ReadingTexas tort “reform” immunizes ER docs against most malpractice claims
Patients in Texas whose health has been ruined by incompetent decisions by ER physicians are having a hard time finding malpractice attorneys to represent them, even when the lawyers admit they have a great case. The reason: The tort reform state lawmakers passed in 2003, which made it more difficult for patients to win damages….
Continue Reading“30-minute promise” for emergency visits makes Texas hospital popular with patients
Quick triage of patients who arrive at the Emergency Department isn’t just important for patient safety. It makes hospitals a lot more popular with their consumers, as one hospital has found. The emergency department at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Plano launched a policy called the 30-Minute Promise in October 2009, pledging to treat patients….
Continue ReadingMalpractice in treating sepsis: Early aggressive care saves lives
There are no simple diagnostic tests for sepsis – an out-of-control reaction to infection that can start shutting down organs in mere hours – but there are warning signs if healthcare providers pay close enough attention, according to Dr. James O’Brien, a critical care specialist at Ohio State University Medical Center. “Minutes matter,” O’Brien says,….
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