Picture the following: A resuscitation is in progress for an elderly gentleman. Health care providers try frantically to restore signs of life. Chest compressions are ongoing, a breathing tube is placed, large intravenous line inserted, electrical shocks and medications given. Eventually the team realizes that they have exhausted all possibilities. To do more would be futile. The team leader “calls the code”. People mill away … one resident chides another about stealing her …
This Just in! BIBEMS suppositorium stat! [LOL]
My good friend and colleague Mark Wahba [read his brilliant ideas here]gave a talk at half day … he referred to a patient as a “BIBEM“. … I am thinking ” what’s a BIBEM? [as in Justin Bieber]” – NO! … turns out that this stands for Brought In By EMS. Later that night I was charting “No ROS; Note S/S Infxn and RTER; Scar teaching √” These are what we call “Acronyms” …
… — … LWBS …—… ER inpatients …—… EMS park …—… Overcapacity
We had our inaugural residency retreat last month! Our guest speaker was Dr Paul Parks – a humble affable family man and Emergency Physician who was unwittingly thrust into the public eye after Emails were leaked documenting failures in the Alberta Health Care system resulting in ER “suboptimal outcomes”. Dr Parks and colleagues documented what they felt were deleterious outcomes in patients in the waiting room of the University of Alberta Hospital …
Trust me! (no explanation required)
Two stories: ONE Yesterday I had a patient come to the ER because she didn’t trust the family doctor she had just seen at the clinic who “gave me a prescription for puffers worth hundreds of dollars without even listening to her chest!”‘ I did my usual and diagnosed the child with reactive airways (likely asthma due to positive family history) … I told the parent that I agreed with the original diagnosis, …
Courage to Make Lemonade
I just found out that a colleague and mentor [to whom I owe much] had a skiing accident in which he broke his neck. It’s early days, but the outcome may not be so good. From what I hear he was joking around before going in for an 11-hour spine operation. He was joking about trying to take down a tree with his head [and was haggling a price for the skis he …
Thou Shalt Not Oompa-Loompantasize Children
Got a letter of praise forwarded to the ER manager by the Patient Advocate Office the other day … ZZZZZT! Wha? Did he just say “praise” or did he say “complaint” … [re-read … no it says “praise”]. Staggering! Furthermore it came from a patient encounter that I had in paeds ER. Hmm … I thought about posting a screen-capture of the letter, but it’s honestly embarrassing to receive such praise [and I’ve …