While most clinical efforts to mitigate the risk of opioid misuse have focused on limiting dosage levels, reducing the length of an opioid prescription actually has greater influence over the risk of misuse, according to a study published in BMJ.
Patient Safety & Outcomes
The American College of Emergency Physicians criticized Anthem's recent moves to incentivize patients with nonemergent symptoms to seek care outside of the emergency department.
A staff attorney for the D.C. Nurses Association, which represents nurses, said Washington, D.C.-based United Medical Center has continued to perform labor and delivery operations despite closure of the hospital's labor and delivery ward last August, The Washington Post reports.
A family is calling for stricter patient-discharge rules after their son, who had a history of mental illness, was killed by a car Sunday night after he signed himself out of Lakewood, Colo.-based St. Anthony Hospital, reports KDVR.
Beaumont, Texas-based Baptist Hospital opened a triage outside its emergency room to help flu patients avoid long ER wait times, according to a KMBT report.
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An emergency department program focused on geriatric transitional care reduced older patients' risk of unnecessary hospitalization by 33 percent at Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to a study published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown, Ky., completed a $15 million emergency department expansion to better serve the 70,000 patients who visit its ER each year, according to The News-Enterprise.
An elderly patient's emergency room visit often signals a major health challenge and should communicate to care providers the patient may need additional care, according to a report in The Washington Post.
Birmingham, Ala.-based UAB Hospital cancelled and rescheduled nonemergency elective surgeries requiring hospitalization due to the influx of flu cases, reports WBRC.
Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth's Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs, Colo., plans to build two safe rooms by mid-February to improve emergency room care for patients with mental health issues, according to a Steamboat Pilot & Today report.