Pediatric patients — do we try too hard?
A two-year-old child is brought into the emergency department on a warm summer day after having been found floating in a backyard swimming pool.
Applied ethics
Bioethics. Business ethics. Moral psychology
Responsibilities for monitoring and maintaining quality of care - mistakes
A 14-week-old infant is brought to the emergency department at 3 a.m. by his mother, who explains that he has been irritable all night and not sleeping well. On exam, the patient has a temperature of 37.9°C.
Telephone orders from a local physician
A physician on the staff of Omega Hospital calls the Omega emergency department and speaks to one of the nurses. He says that a patient of his is coming in with a migraine headache, and he wants the nurse to give the patient 100 mg of Demeral intramuscularly (a normal adult dose).
Fee-for-service system of care
A 28-year-old female executive was jogging on her lunch hour and twisted her ankle. Although the soft tissues are swollen, and some support for the ankle is indicated, no fracture is evident on x-ray.