As hundreds of patients facing psychiatric emergencies are admitted to emergency departments each year, hospitals can help prevent EDs from being overwhelmed by taking several key actions, starting with better collaboration, an emergency medicine director writes in a STAT op-ed.
Patient Safety & Outcomes
Overcrowding at New York City-based Montefiore Medical Center — one of the state's busiest emergency rooms — has forced caregivers to treat patients through "hallway admissions," several nurses and patients at the hospital told the New York Daily News.
A fire at Jefferson Hills, Pa.-based Jefferson Hospital, a part of the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, led to some patients and visitors being moved, according to wpxi.com.
Solving the nation's opioid epidemic is no easy task. It's a problem that has sparked more than 800 lawsuits, sent thousands of children into foster care and, in 2017, killed more than 48,600 people.
Wayne Jonas, MD, a physician, retired army medical officer and alternative medicine researcher, shared three ways clinicians can help chronic pain patients avoid opioid dependency in an Sept. 24 post on his website.
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The opioid crisis can be understood in a lot of different ways. It’s been described as a failure of policy, the collateral damage in the pursuit of irresponsible profits, or just the latest trend in an eons-old cycle of addiction.…
The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to stock the opioid overdose antidote naloxone in its automated external defibrillator cabinets at facilities nationwide starting in December, according to NPR.
Madison-based UW Health's Level 1 trauma center treated several victims of a workplace shooting incidence Sept. 19 in Middleton, Wis., according to WKOW 27.
University of Kentucky Good Samaritan Hospital was forced to divert emergency room patients and partially evacuate Sept. 24 after a chemical spill, The Lexington Herald Leader reports.
In response to mass shootings in cities nationwide, hospital officials are conducting real-life simulations to prepare to treat victims, according to U.S. News & World Report.