Guest post by Linda B. After spending years in both the Emergency Room and the Intensive Care Unit, I have come to realize that we do a grave disservice to the Canadian Public…people think they are healthy. People think that if they wake up in the morning, swallow a handful of pills and go about their daily lives, they are healthy. Despite the fact that our lives are generally sedentary, we eat too …
Coming to a hospital near you: physician-assisted suicide.
Scenario 1: A 64 year old patient is suffering from advanced Lou Gehrig’s disease – she cannot perform her own activities of daily living, and can do nothing but watch her own body deteriorate until the slow release of death. She wishes to have the opportunity to control how she passes, with the aid of her healthcare providers. Sound reasonable? Scenario 2: A 64 year old patient is suffering from severe depression – …
Acknowledging Death in the ER
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, …