Category Name: perspectives

EM MINDSET

The Art of Decision Making: Emergency Medicine Style

It’s 3pm on a Monday after a holiday. The department is bustling, and you feel like there are patients crammed into every conceivable space. Alarms are going off on patient monitors. You’re in the midst of discussing a case with a resident when a nurse puts an ECG in front of you to review an...

FOAMED

The Patient Experience: Why Is It Important? Why Do We Hate It So Much? What Can We Do To Improve?

I HAVE BECOME INFATUATED WITH THE PATIENT CARE EXPERIENCE. I believe the term “patient care experience” is a more inclusive term that describes our technical expertise while also including everything else, such as communication, department ambience, throughput, and the behavior of everyone a patient comes into contact with while in the department.

perspectives

The Hypotensive ED Patient: A Sequential Systematic Approach

Treat the patient, not the number. A blood pressure of 120/80 mmHg in a chronically hypertensive patient can be dangerously low. Whatever the HPI may suggest, unbiased implementation of the bedside physical examination and sonography are crucial in the workup of unexplained hypotension. This four st...