Online CPR Certification Blog

Before the man died, he had visited an emergency department at a nearby hospital two days earlier. The attorney of the plaintiff said that at the hospital, the man has classic symptoms and seemed like his neck had a sign saying ‘Aortic Aneurysm.’ The doctor that examined the man and the hospital lawyers said that by the time the man arrived at the emergency department, he showed no signs of aortic aneurysm. The jury ruled in favor of the plaintiff and the defendants ordered to pay a $3.4 million fine for failing to diagnose aneurysm which resulted in the patient’s death.

While the news was very brief, what caught the attention of many was the fact that the doctor who attended the patient at the emergency revealed that he wasn’t trained as an emergency physician but was a board certified, contracted ob/ gyn who had been operating at the emergency department of the hospital. A layperson has no idea of how difficult or easy diagnosing aortic aneurysm can be and whether this particular physician or ob/ gyn in general was capable of diagnosing the condition, if it were true that it was present when the man visited the hospital. While this might seem like an ordinary issue, there is more than catch the eye and patients visiting hospitals have more questions than answers as to who should exactly diagnose them at the emergency department.

The staffing of hospital emergency departments

This also got people thinking as to exactly who staffs the emergency departments in the hospitals. This case shows that you might not always find emergency physicians at the ED. Well, it is also true that an ob/ gyn aren’t the worst kind of specialists you should expect to find at the emergency deck. When people comes bursting the doors to the emergency departments, those folks sitting on the deck are more than happy to attend to the patients.

What to expect at hospital emergency departments

Regardless of who staffs the emergency departments at the hospitals, any patient visiting the ED obviously have some expectations from the physician. For starters, you expect that the emergency physician will do everything possible to save your life after checking in dying state or when bleeding. In case you are not dying or bleeding, the physician should do everything possible to figure out exactly what is wrong with you. If the physician can’t, he/ she should find someone else who can help you. Finally, you expect that the physician treat you or alternatively hands you to another person who can offer you the necessary treatment.

What this means is that at the emergency departments, patients not only have to rely on the kindness of strangers but also their competence as well. Of course everyone will feel safe by knowing that the doctor working at the emergency department is certified and competent in emergency medicine.