Fresno, California hospitals struggle to meet demand
Editor's Note Hospitals in Fresno County, California are operating over capacity by 20% to 40% due to a sharp rise in respiratory diseases such as flu, COVID-19 and RSV, according to a December 18 press release from the Fresno County Department of Public Health. In addition to straining resources, the…
Critical shortage of rehab beds highlights a strained system, impact on patient safety
Editor's Note A critical lack of beds in rehabilitation facilities and postdischarge care is impacting patient recovery postoperatively, Forbes December 12 reports. According to the article, procedures involving brain and spinal cord injuries are the most impacted. Authors Robert Glatter, MD, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New…
Video laryngoscopy leads to higher success rates than direct laryngoscopy
Editor's Note Video laryngoscopy was found to lead to higher intubation success rates over direct laryngoscopy in critically ill adult patients, an August 2023 randomized controlled trial published by the The New England Journal of Medicine shows. The findings were consistent whether they were intubated in an emergency room or…
Study: Routine ER screening catches undiagnosed type 2 diabetes, prediabetes
Editor's Note Early symptoms of type 2 diabetes often go undetected, and late detection can lead to long-term complications, including heart disease, nerve damage, and retinopathy. Screening for type 2 diabetes in the emergency department could reveal thousands of previously undiagnosed cases each year, EurekAlert! October 3 reports. These findings…
Assistance program leads to major drop in ER visits, costs for immigrants
Editor's Note A study from economists and public health officials in the September 2023 issue of the journal American Economic Review: Insights found that when undocumented immigrants were provided assistance to visit primary care doctors via a pilot program, it resulted in a 21% drop in emergency room (ER) use.…
Rates of surgical consultations for Black vs White patients after ED admission
Editor's Note In this study from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, researchers find that Black Medicare patients were less likely to receive surgical consultations than White Medicare patients after being admitted from the emergency department (ED) with an emergency general surgery condition. Of 1,686,940 Medicare patients included in the analysis,…
Hospital occupancy, ED boarding during COVID-19
Editor's Note This study from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, finds that hospital occupancy greater than 85% was linked to increased emergency department (ED) boarding beyond the 4-hour standard, during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020 through December 2021), and ED boarding increased even when hospital occupancy did…
Increasing violence contributes to ED physician burnout, impacts patient care
Editor's Note In a recent American College of Emergency Physicians survey, some 85% of emergency physicians say they believe violence in US emergency departments (EDs) has risen over the past 5 years, and 45% say it has “greatly increased,” the September 22 EmergencyPhysicians.org reports Two-thirds of the 3,000 physicians surveyed…
ACS: Prevent BLEEDing Act introduced in Congress
Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS), on May 19, announced that it strongly supports legislation that creates a grant program to provide training on bleeding control techniques and anti-blood loss supplies for use in medical emergencies. The “Prevent Blood Loss with Emergency Equipment Devices Act (Prevent Bleeding Act),”…
Innovation Spot: Leveraging technology to address gaps in staffing
Is technology part of the answer for nursing staff woes? As COVID-19 patients continue to fill hospital beds, caregivers are feeling exhausted, burned out, and unappreciated. OR nurses have been especially hit hard, as shifts in surgeries and overflowing patient wards stretch OR nurses beyond their limits and comfort zones.…
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