Articles: emergency-services.
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Social science & medicine · Feb 1995
Heavy users of emergency services: social construction of a policy problem.
A relatively small subgroup of emergency department (ED) patients is responsible for a disproportionate amount of ED visits and costs. This subgroup, the heavy users of ED services, is identified as a medically and socially vulnerable population. ⋯ The problem is nested within a complex of larger, interdependent problems including access to care, lack of primary/preventive services, absent or inadequate social services, and fragmented service delivery. This article uses the literature on heavy users of ED services to argue that social constructions of the problem and articulation of solutions by different key players in health care reform are based on divergent and often conflicting premises.
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Health Care Law Newsl · Feb 1995
Special report on patient care. The new federal patient-dumping regulations: some commonly asked questions and answers.
Until both providers and government surveyors become more familiar with the new EMTALA regulations, there will be an uncomfortable period of adjustment, and perhaps some turmoil as well, particularly regarding the new requirement that facilities who receive suspicious transfers report those transfers to HCFA. Providers should carefully examine their internal policies on discharge and transfer of emergency patients to assure that those policies are consistent with the new regulations. Particular attention should be given to inservice training for medical and support personnel in the emergency department, because they must precisely comply with the law and their errors can subject the hospital to costly investigations and potential fines of $50,000 for each violation.
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We have saved a minimum of $17,064 in personnel salaries of a patient representative (based on minimum wage and no paid benefits) during the past year. Although our liaison program was initially started as a cost-saving measure, the benefits of the program cannot be measured in monetary terms. ⋯ Many of the liaisons were totally unaware of the activities in an emergency department. They now have a greater appreciation for the process of emergency care, and can relate that understanding to patients and families.