Working in a physical medicine setting, a patient complaint I see on daily basis is knee pain. The knee pain complaints in this setting and that commonly present in the primary care setting are typically non-traumatic, non-emergent in nature. Before working in physical medicine, I didn’t truly appreciate how complex the knee is. There are quite a few different causes for non-traumatic knee pain, in this blog post I am going to cover iliotibial band syndrome and patellofemoral pain syndrome.
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Non-traumatic Foreign Bodies of the HEENT and Esophagus
People often present to an emergency room, or urgent care setting with a foreign body lodged in an orifice. When the patient presents they will have a sense of urgency, and feel that it needs to “come out now”. This may or may not be the case. In order of most to least common, non-traumatic foreign bodies can become lodged in the throat, ears, nose, vagina, rectum and urethra. Patients may be adult or pediatric. Kids will often stick beads or buttons in their ears or nose, and will swallow just about anything. Adults may have an insect in their ear, esophageal food impaction, or engage in foreign body insertions during sexual practices. In this blog we will talk about HEENT/Esophageal foreign bodies.
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The Police, an 80’s English rock band, had it right in there song ‘Every Breath You Take’ when they said:
- Every breath you take
- Every move you make
- Every bond you break
- Every step you take
- I’ll be watching you
Fluid Administration
Utilizing the 4 D’s to exercise fluid stewardship
“Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.” -Paracelsus, date unknown
For patients in septic shock or those that are dehydrated, administration of fluid is top priority to restore adequate intravascular volume, increasing cardiac output, augment oxygen delivery, and improving tissue oxygenation.
[Read more…] about Fluid AdministrationMonocular Painless Vision Loss
Eye complaints, particularly vision complaints, can seem daunting to a provider in an urgent care or emergency department setting. The eye is a complex structure. The anatomy and the neurology behind vision is intricate. Often, you may be practicing in an environment without the ability to consult an ophthalmologist. An understanding of urgent and emergent eye and visual problems is crucial. This post will deal with painless vision loss.
Decoding MIPS in Emergency Medicine – Radiology Edition
In our last edition, we discussed some ways of altering practice models or properly documenting patient care so that we stay within the current MIPS guidelines while continuing to provide the highest quality care. In this edition, we will discuss some of the MIPS guidelines as they pertain to Radiographic studies that are commonly ordered in ER/Urgent Care settings. As always, appropriate documentation as to why, or why not, a test was ordered is crucial not only for MIPS, but from a legal standpoint as well. So, let’s get into it!
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