emergency rooms news from FierceHealthcare

It's a fact of life that people die in emergency departments, of course. But in Sacramento County, CA, it seems they're dying at higher rates than in virtually any other county in the state. Read more...

The Bronx has a higher death rate from AIDS than any of the boroughs in New York City. And according to new research from the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of HIV infections in the U.S. is Read more...

Even by today's standards, New York City's emergency departments have been in a state of crisis. All told, EDs in the city handled more than 3.6 million visits in 2005, up 6 percent over 2000--with Read more...

Emergency rooms are crammed across the country--and what's happening in New Jersey is a perfect example. According to a new report, ED overcrowding and staff shortages are so severe, one ambulance an Read more...

Just yesterday we reported on a study that found as many as 5 percent of all hospital and nursing home patients are infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at any given time--significantly more widespread than previously thought.

Now the Wall Street Journal is outlining some of the steps hospitals are taking to cut down on the rate …

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Press Release: Gov. Schwarzenegger Tackles California's Broken Health Care System

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> Despite its potential, clinic operator Medcor isn't hot after the walk-in retail clinic business. Here's why. Article

> How one hospital is dealing with cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Letter

> Interested in leaving medicine for a big, fat consulting paycheck? You, …

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This is the story of one more healthcare system's struggle to provide humane, cost-efficient care to an underserved population, in this case illegal immigrants. Like other uninsured patients, Delaware's illegal immigrants often have little access to primary care. When they're sick, they end up in the emergency rooms of Delaware's hospitals, crowding out insured patients while generating bills they can't pay. The hospitals get some federal funding to compensate for the cost of caring for …

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All this talk about ER overcrowding has caught Congress's attention. The Senate Health subcommittee on bioterrorism and public health preparedness heard testimony about the growing problem in ERs and the impact that a disaster could have on the nation's emergency departments. In the ten years from 1994 to 2004, the number of ER visits rose 18 percent, to 110 million. But over that same time …

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A number of hospitals are investing in pediatric emergency rooms that separate children (and parents) from the stress of visiting a regular ER. A recent IOM report warned that most ERs aren't prepared to provide adequate pediatric care. Despite the fact that 26 percent of patients arriving at U.S. emergency rooms are children, only 6 percent of emergency departments were found to have adequate facilities for pediatric cases. Hospitals are improving their pediatric care by providing staff …

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