Annals of emergency medicine
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We assess whether patient satisfaction scores differ for individual emergency physicians according to the clinical setting in which patients are treated. ⋯ Although these results are limited by small sample size, we found that physicians consistently received lower satisfaction ratings from ED patients than from urgent care patients. This challenges the validity of using satisfaction scores to compare providers in different practice settings.
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Emergency physicians frequently interact with law enforcement officers and patients in their custody. As always, the emergency physician's primary professional responsibility is to promote patient welfare, and his or her first duty is to the patient. Emergency physicians should treat criminals, suspects, and prisoners with the same respect and attention they afford other patients while ensuring the safety of staff, visitors, and other patients. ⋯ Simultaneously, emergency physicians should attempt to accommodate law enforcement personnel in a professional manner, enlisting their aid when necessary. Often this relates to the emergency physician's socially imposed duties, governed by state laws, to report infectious diseases, suspicion of abuse or neglect, and threats of harm. It is the emergency physician's duty to maintain patient confidentiality while complying with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations and state law.
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The National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization note that acupuncture is a safe and effective treatment for pain. Nonopioid treatment options for moderate to severe acute pain in the emergency department (ED) are limited. ⋯ Auricular Battlefield Acupuncture has been described as a simple, safe, rapid, and effective analgesic option to opioid medications in managing acute pain. We describe 4 cases in which emergency physicians with brief training performed this auricular acupuncture protocol to treat patients with acute pain in EDs when opioid analgesia was not an acceptable option.