Emergency Room

Ogechi Ukachu, one of the registered nurses recently hired to help staff D.C.'s "Right Care Right Now" program, takes a training call at the city's 911 call center.

Can Triage Nurses Help Prevent 911 Overload?

5:17pm April 19, 2018

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

One in four calls to the Washington, D.C., 911 line isn't an emergency. The city now has triage nurses working with dispatchers to get callers with less urgent needs a same-day clinic visit instead.

Free-standing ERs tend to have lower standby costs than hospital-based facilities that have to be ready to treat dire injuries. But the free-standing ERs typically receive the same Medicare rate for emergency services.

Medicare Advisers Recommend Payment Cuts To Many Free-Standing ERs

5:00am April 17, 2018

by Michelle Andrews

An agency that advises Congress recommends a 30 percent reduction in some federal reimbursements to free-standing ERs that are within 6 miles of a hospital.

Health & Safety

North Carolina Sees Sharp Rise In Opioid Overdose Emergency Room Visits

6:11am March 21, 2018

by Bethany Chafin

There were over 5,700 emergency department visits for opioid overdoses in 2017. That amounts to a 40 percent increase from the year before.

As a "hospital-at-home" patient, Phyllis Petruzzelli was visited twice a day by doctors and nurses who were able to perform any needed tests or bloodwork there to help her heal from pneumonia. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Petruzzelli says.

Patients Like Hospital Care At Home, But Some Insurers Are Skeptical

5:00am March 07, 2018

by Michelle Andrews

Some health systems are encouraging selected emergency room patients who are sick but stable and don't need intensive, round-the-clock care to opt for hospital-level care at home, instead.

Emergency rooms are seeing a jump in opioid overdoses. Timely treatment with naloxone can reverse the effects of opioids.

Jump In Overdoses Shows Opioid Epidemic Has Worsened

6:19pm March 06, 2018

by Rob Stein

Opioid overdoses increased 30 percent nationwide between 2016 and 2017, with some places showing even more dramatic spikes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Queue Listen Now

Getting health care to rural areas may involve tough decisions about the role of hospitals.

Rethinking Rural Health Solutions To Save Patients And Communities

3:14pm February 28, 2018

by Adrienne St. Clair

Hospitals have long been linchpins of rural communities, providing jobs as well as health care. But policy analysts say some hospitals may have to change or close to better serve rural health needs.

Ashley Copeland (right) talks to her mom Sue Iverson in the Swedish Medical Center emergency department, near Denver. Copeland got a nerve-blocking anesthetic instead of opioids to ease her severe headache. At discharge she was advised to use over-the-cou

These 10 ERs Sharply Reduced Opioid Use And Still Eased Pain

11:18am February 23, 2018

by John Daley

Collaboration was key for the 10 emergency rooms that cut opioid prescriptions by 36 percent. Doctors say they now use less addictive medicines to manage pain and have shifted patients' expectations.

Francisco Hidalgo prepares to receive a trigger point injection from Dr. Alexis LaPietra (right) at St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., while Dr. Tyler Manis observes. An alternative to opioids, the trigger point injection involves d

ER Reduces Opioid Use By More Than Half With Dry Needles, Laughing Gas

7:03pm February 20, 2018

by Hansi Lo Wang

Opioid prescriptions in one of the busiest emergency rooms in the U.S dropped 58 percent in the first year of an unusual program to help stem the opioid epidemic. More hospitals are copying the model.

Queue Listen Now

Business

Cone Health Seeks State Approval For Multi-Million Dollar MedCenter Complex

12:51pm February 16, 2018

by Keri Brown

Cone Health wants to build a new emergency department near the Greensboro Urban Loop.

Women are catching up with men nationally in overall drinking, as well as in binge drinking, drunk driving and deaths from cirrhosis of the liver caused by alcoholism.

Alcohol-Related ER Visits Soar, Especially Among Women

2:07pm January 11, 2018

by Robin Lloyd

The nine-year period ending in 2014 saw a sharp increase in the U.S. of alcohol-related visits to emergency rooms, a study finds. And binge drinking doesn't completely explain it.