Blog & Articles

A chief complaint of pain is one of the most common encountered by practitioners in any specialty. The pain may be acute or chronic. It may be located in the abdomen, chest, head or any other body part. It may be spontaneous in onset or may be due to an injury. It can range from minimal discomfort to a 15 on the pain scale of 1 to 10. The seriousness of the pain may vary from life-threatening to embarrassingly minor.The patient’s description of pain may be pinpointed and exact or agonizingly vague. Regardless of its characteristics, pain is what brings patients to healthcare providers by the millions every year.

Failure to diagnose is the most common medical error in the practice of emergency, urgent care and primary care medicine. Spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is one of the most difficult conditions to diagnose, but there are common threads among failure to diagnose spinal epidural abscess cases. This case is presented to provide perspective and to increase our vigilance for catching this disabling and possibly even fatal diagnosis.

The uncommon but lethal infection known as necrotizing fasciitis continues to be in the news. This is a devastating disease that can be difficult to diagnose in the early stages. The first presentation is often nothing more than arm or leg pain that looks very much like garden-variety musculoskeletal discomfort. By the time the diagnosis is made, the disease process is often too far along to reverse it, resulting in severe disability or death. However, there are usually a few clinical clues that a more dangerous process is under way.

The temperatures are rising, and school sports are starting long practices in all kinds of weather. During intense exercise, people can lose up to 1.5 liters of fluid per hour. Summer is prime time for pediatric patients to sustain heat-related illnesses, and these patients may present to the emergency department in some distress.

February is American Heart Month and an appropriate time to recognize the recent reduction in mortality rate from cardiovascular disease in women. The increased awareness of women and healthcare professionals has resulted in better care and is at least partially responsible for the lower death rate from heart disease seen over the past decade.

However, the battle against women’s heart disease is far from over. Awareness has improved, but the realities of heart disease in women remain underappreciated.

Are you prepared for surges in your ED patient volumes?

As we head into the peak of flu season, many facilities are already feeling the effects of increased volumes, such as:

• Longer waiting times
• Staff exposed to more airborne illnesses resulting in increased sick time
• A shift in perceptions of care resulting in lower patient satisfaction scores