Healthcare Update Satellite – 08-06-2013

Look for more updates at my other blog at Dr.Whitecoat.com
Naked West Virginia patient steals ambulance from emergency department parking lot, goes on joy ride and then crashes into three vehicles – requiring more ambulances to take injured patients to the hospital. Hopefully this time they locked the ambulance doors. And I’m not sure I’d be wanting to sit on the driver’s seat without a plastic cover until after the seat gets washed down.
Use of chest x-rays in asthma patients increasing between 1995 and 2009. According to a 2005 study cited within the post, most xrays in children with asthma are deemed “unnecessary.” I don’t have access to the full article, but if it doesn’t have prospective criteria for what are considered necessary tests in wheezing or dyspneic children, then the results are suspect. Remember, kids don’t come to the emergency department saying “treat my asthma.” Kids come to the emergency department with trouble breathing, with wheezing, and with coughing. If the researchers are saying retrospectively, based on a normal CXR, that the kids had asthma and didn’t need an x-ray, that’s classic hindsight bias.
What’s that? You have an ingrown toenail? Well, you’re getting tested for HIV. Why? Because some study says so. Who’s paying for it? Who cares? The study says there’s a benefit. Out of 9,572 patients offered testing, 40% agreed and they found SIX new HIV cases. But don’t you dare call that an “unnecessary test,”...

Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - August 6, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs