The Catch-22 of documentation fraud
I just wanted to expand on something I wrote yesterday, which relates to my other sort-of-recent post on upcoding. I wrote, about scribes and compliance:Knowing that the scribe cannot document a...
View ArticleDischarge a PE? that’s crazy talk!
So I recently sent home a patient with a Pulmonary Embolism (PE) for the first time. Or perhaps I should say that that it was the first time I've knowingly sent home a patient with a PE, but that's...
View ArticleOn objectivity
Now, I'm not a radiologist, oncologist or an epidemiologist. So I am not claiming any expert opinion of the science, but I was not surprised to see yet another major article released regarding the...
View ArticleBe careful out there
Cute little PSA -- Dumb ways to die The post Be careful out there appeared first on FOAM EM RSS.
View ArticleThis is what it takes to get published nowadays
For Pete's sake. This popped up in my newsfeed today, with multiple lay media citations: Pediatric Inflatable Bouncer–Related Injuries in the United States, 1990–2010 METHODS: Records were analyzed...
View ArticleVindication
I love, it, I really love it, when one of my strongly-held prejudices is borne out by actual, you know, facts and science.For years, I have been arguing against the practice of performing a routine...
View ArticleWhat malpractice looks like
I review a lot of cases in my professional life. Some of them are just ones that our QA group comes across in our practice. Some are cases related to our liability policy. Some are cases I'm sent for...
View Article(Only) human
Chatting with some med students, a good question was raised: how do we, as doctors, deal with the emotional baggage we encounter in our profession? It's high stress, we see disturbing things, and...
View ArticleTis the Season
Grew up in a very big Irish Family in Chicago, and this pretty well encapsulates my experience of the holidays growing up:My cousin Tom and I were the nephews designated Mischief and Mayhem...The post...
View ArticleMerry Christmas!
From one godless atheist to your family. Hoping it's a great holiday for all of you.The post Merry Christmas! appeared first on FOAM EM RSS.
View ArticleCanadians can be funny
Who knew? By Bowser and BlueThe post Canadians can be funny appeared first on FOAM EM RSS.
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Apparently I’m a pimp
I actually have no interest in responding to this. I decided some time ago that life is too damn short to waste it arguing with assholes on the internet. I've stuck to that reasonably well, and been...
View ArticleMayor Bloomberg and Narcotics
I may be just a bit late in commenting on this, but last week (which was like ten years ago in Internet time) there was a bit of hue and cry regarding Mayor Bloomberg's report on the matter of...
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Gone Electric
Haven't written much in a while, but thought I'd throw in an off-topic post, just for the heck of it. A couple of months ago, I made a major change in my life: I traded in my old car, a 2004 BMW 530i...
View ArticleThis week in Children and Gunfire
Horrific:[View the story "This week in Children and Gunfire" on Storify]The post This week in Children and Gunfire appeared first on FOAM EM RSS.
View ArticleSomeone is WRONG on the internet! (Hospital admission edition)
The grandiosely-named "MD Whistleblower," recently wrote a post, reblogged at KevinMD, entitled "Why the ER admits too many patients."I will begin with the time-honored ad hominem attack, since I am...
View ArticlePain and Suffering in the ER
I took a recent family trip Down Under and had the good fortune to be in Australia's Gold Coast at the same time as the SMACCGold Conference. (Well, it wasn't entirely a coincidence.) I was happy to...
View ArticleOn Call
Every ER has its call roster, that sacred list of oracles, laying out who we can call when our patients need some service that we cannot provide. If I need a cardiologist, or a neurosurgeon or even a...
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In Defense of the Hyperangulated Blade
Let me begin, as is my wont, with a story. Let's say, for the sake of discussion, that I was moonlighting at Janus General Hospital. I had a patient signed out to me by my partner: a young patient with...
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Happy SGR Repeal Day
Yeah, it happened. The SGR is finally dead. Hooray! Sort of.I mean, it's great and all that — we'll no longer have the annual threat of a massive payment cut from a poorly crafted piece of legislation...
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