MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'emtala'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:40:03 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5086172&cid=t_182486_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Foverwhelmed-ers-continue-to-rise-to-the-challenge%2F2011.07.31 Last night I was contacted by a physician in the local urgent-care.   I like him, and we made polite, but brief, conversation.  ‘So, are you guys busy?’ I gave him the status report.  ‘Well, yeah.  We have about 25 people waiting to be seen the waiting room is full and every patient room is full.  Also, we just received a gun-shot wound to the head by EMS.’ ‘Wow, sounds terrible!  So, here’s what I need to send you…’ What he sent was, in fact, reasonable.  A young woman with signs and symptoms of meningitis (who was treated earlier in the day for and upper respiratory virus…with Amoxicillin, of course.) She needed a lumbar puncture, which I performed and which was  negative. But I had this thought.  I could probably have said, (more…) *This blog ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5086172 Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:00:39 +0100 5086172 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4525032&cid=t_182486_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fnot-enough-psychiatric-beds%2F2011.02.26 I read today that Eastern Ontario has started a bed registry to keep track of where open psychiatric beds are available. This is something I’ve long advocated. The United States now has less than 10 percent of the beds it used to have 50 years ago. Granted, treatment has improved and community resources are enhanced. But there are still areas that often do not have a sufficient number of hospital beds for folks needing acute inpatient psychiatric care. The Ontario story described in the Ottawa Citizen states that six of the area hospitals have been connected to a computerized “bed board” that provides real-time information on who has an appropriate bed available. This saves time in the ER and gets patients to needed treatment more quickly. Otherwise calls need to be made... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4525032 Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:00:00 +0100 4525032 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4438886&cid=t_182486_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fis-the-er-really-the-best-place-to-get-primary-care-quicker%2F2011.02.05 In 1986, when Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), hospitals and ambulance services were mandated by law to stabilize anyone needing emergency healthcare services regardless of citizenship, legal status, and/or insurance status. This was instituted at the time to prevent the prevalent practice of “dumping” — refusing to treat patients because of insufficient insurance or transferring or discharging patients on the basis of anticipating high diagnosis and treatment costs. While the implications of this law are indeed very noble in providing undifferentiated care to all patients based solely on healthcare needs and not financial status, it has unfortunately led to many patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) for primary care is... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4438886 Sat, 05 Feb 2011 17:00:34 +0100 4438886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3848872&cid=t_182486_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Ffair-pay-and-unfunded-mandates%2F2010.08.09 This is my column in [the August 3rd] Atlanta Journal Constitution: Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently produced an interesting public service announcement. In it, she stated that every worker deserves to be paid fairly for his or her labor (whether the worker is documented or not), and offered both a website and telephone hot-line which workers could use to report unfair payment by employers. (Incidentally, here’s the link: www.dol.gov/wecanhelp.) In the video, she stated succinctly, “You work hard, and you deserve to be paid fairly.” Those of us who practice medicine completely agree. So we might reasonably ask if this announcement also applies to physicians who are undercompensated for their work. This routinely happens when patients are covered by Medicare and Medic... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3848872 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:00:42 +0100 3848872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3092694&cid=t_182486_88_f&fid=38959&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.epmonthly.com%2Fwhitecoat%2F2009%2F12%2Fdialysis-and-the-right-to-health-care%2F According to this Article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a court has ruled that at least some health care is not a right. In October, I linked to an article about how Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta was closing its dialysis clinics due to the significant financial burden. Grady has agreed to pay for the patients to receive dialysis at a private dialysis clinic until January 3, 2010, but after that, the patients are on their own. After Grady’s announcement, approximately 50 illegal immigrants sued to keep the clinic open, alleging that closing of the clinic “violated their constitutional right to the health care service” and that closing the clinic amounted to “medical abandonment.” The court held that the plaintiffs had neither a state nor a federal... WhiteCoat's Call Room blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3092694 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:02:25 +0100 3092694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1502938&cid=t_182486_105_f&fid=36529&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocsontheweb.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F06%2F21st-century-alchemy-still-failure.html The only thing surprising about this article is that it is, evidently, surprising to the author.* Just found this... Orthopedic surgeons may be leading the charge. Will the government listen to the experts who actually fix people, or will it tie them to the rack?** And meet my hero. (Source: M.D.O.D.) M.D.O.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1502938 Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:52:00 +0100 1502938 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1481044&cid=t_182486_105_f&fid=36529&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocsontheweb.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F05%2Fhey-docs-im-calling-your-sorry-asses.html Here's a Georgia O'Keefe painting called "Jack in the Pulpit no. I V." Nice.On a completely different subject, what is it about physicians that makes us pussies? Somehow the previous generation of physicians rolled over and ate a huge shit-sandwich from the government called EMTALA. Our national organizations, the AMA, ACEP and the like, have acted like a bunch of perpetually-stoned good-time rock and roll maggot-infested hippies and have embraced the fucksticks at JCAHO too.I know that the premed route is not exactly peppered with economics, logic, or business classes but please, you freaking douchebags, how in the name of all that is holy did you swallow the EMTALA and JCAHO pills? How, exactly, can you provide CABGs for all regardless of their ability to pay? The answer is, you can't, b... M.D.O.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1481044 Fri, 30 May 2008 19:33:00 +0100 1481044 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1443381&cid=t_182486_105_f&fid=36529&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocsontheweb.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F05%2Fall-your-medical-news-right-here.html Hate to blow our own horn but we've been saying this stuff for a couple of years now and the Wall Street Journal is late to the party. Check Here too, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and other places, and, finally, here.M.D.O.D., we're cynical about medicine and the politicians and entitled teat-suckers that have destroyed it, and you should be too. (Source: M.D.O.D.) M.D.O.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1443381 Thu, 15 May 2008 00:40:00 +0100 1443381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1455494&cid=t_182486_118_f&fid=36984&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthManagementRx%2F%7E3%2F273281922%2Fmaryland-gets-million-to-reroute.html CMS just awarded my former homestate Maryland with a cool $1.78M.Great coverage by Sue Schultz in the Washington Business Journal here. Sue also covers the healthcare funding beat for the Baltimore Business Journal.The CMS capital injection will fund a task force composed of "3 regional healthcare teams" staffed with "several community care providers."The team is, among other things, charged with "avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits."MDs Department of Mental Health and Hygiene will get $732,216 this year for "creation of the teams" - that's $244,072 per team if all dollars are directed right to the bottom line, but there's no way they'll see that much in the budget line after DMHH gets an administrative/overhead cut.This is a much nicer salary than 'community care providers' would e... Health Management Rx blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1455494 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:44:00 +0100 1455494