Archive for February, 2008
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An Inconvenient Graph
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Ahem. Uh, there was one? Major stream of consciousness to follow.
My name’s Howard J. Turkstra. I’m from Kansas City. My hobbies are fast cars and fast women. Because… That’s why guys in my car club call me “The Cruiser.” I joined the Army because my father and my brother were in the Army. I thought […]
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USA Today, Years Behind MDOD.
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USA Today Headlines . They don’t do a bad job with this story, but I disagree that with a few tweaks here and there that this is an easy fix.
Visit our home site here.
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Trust me, this won’t hurt
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A friend encouraged me to share this story.
A few months ago, a very scared and jittery 12 year old boy presented to the ED with a cast problem. He had broken his arm the day before and the orthopod had casted him instead of splinting the fracture. According to those who had seen […]
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"Lips" Reversed
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A semi corollary to the “lips” of 85’s post..
A few years back, about 1980 or so, I remember picking up a chart with the chief complaint of headache. Walked in the room to see a young fellow. Asked him to describe his headache and he says “It ain’t that head Doc” I […]
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140 into 280
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My favorite patient of the day presented against the following backdrop…..The hospital is full. Our minor care center’s 12 beds have all been converted to holding beds for admits awaiting a room. Of our 31 main ER beds, 9 are blocked by more admits, the others full of patients being evaluated. We have 12 […]
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My Rant Against Addiction as a Disease
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Just for fun try to find the 5 year success rates, published, from reputable journals, on the success of our current treatment of ”addiction as a disease”. You probably can’t and there’s a reason. The success rates are no better than going “cold turkey”. It’s about 5%. This realization has hit me hard as I […]
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Please Do This
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I have no ties with this company, in fact, I found it when I clicked the ad on MDOD. There’s no reason you can’t do this yourself and I didn’t read the fine print but this service might be worth it for other reasons. If you bring one of these to your next ER visit […]
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Study: Shortage of On-Call Specialists Spreads Nationally (American College of Emergency Physicians News, Jan 2008)
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It ain’t rocket surgery. My crystal ball rocks. This was predicted by yours truly. Why be a doctor?
Could ‘cripple’ emergency, trauma care.ACEP NewsJanuary 2008
By Kate JohnsonElsevier Global Medical News
Emergency on-call coverage from specialist physicians is “unraveling” at hospitals across the country, according to a new study–and the crisis may be pushing beleaguered physicians out of […]
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Happy Valentine’s Day!
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I’ve been “saving” this case for a while. I thought that Valentine’s Day was the time to present it for your enjoyment.
It will be 2 years this April. I walked in the ER door for my mid-morning shift, not quite awake, and not quite ready for work. As soon as I entered the ER, I […]
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Uniforms
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Yesterday, I wandered into our “Lead Unit Secretary’s” office for a little good natured kidding. Seems like every time I see her, her job title and responsibilities have changed. I honestly have no idea what she does, or why we need her, but she works hard and puts in lots of hours, so I guess […]
