Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Strange Happenings

An investigation is ongoing into recent vandalism in and around the resident lounge. Two beds have been broken, and someone with long hair either washed or cut their hair in the sink, stopping it up, overflowing the toilet, and a hole had to be cut in the wall to fix the pipes! There are various suspects, including more than one of our own residents, but the prime suspect, in my mind, is one of the female peds residents who is very strange, to say the least. She may be on drugs, and I think she lives full time in the hospital. She even told me she does have an apartment, but that she is afraid to go there because there are "too many stairs", and she has a bad fear of steps! BAD paranoia! Once, I walked into the surgery lounge at two in the morning, to steal a soda, and there she was when I opened the door, just standing there, staring at the wall!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Swine Flu Strikes

The Swine Flu has hit our emergency department hard already and the flu season is very, very young. The Hospital is staying full and Holds are filling up the Emergency Room. The waiting room is a madhouse, people are in arguements, fist fights, and half the people are wearing masks. Things are very, very crazy!

Monday, September 14, 2009

A couple More

Found two who were in the 90's over 4 years, and one with 130 in 14 months! The unfortunate part about that last pt is they tried to die on my shift recently.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

An update on The Repeat offenders

Thus far, just by searching the patients I personally know, I have found some interesting results. One pt has been in this single ER 320 times over four years! During that time the pt has amassed an amazing 100 CTs! Think of the radiation exposure! This patients Mother has visited us 70 times as well during the same period. The average cost of a CT is something like $1500 (although some numbers I saw were closer to $3000. So this pt. has cost medicaid 150,000 in cat scans alone. ER visits run between $100 and 5000. lets assume an average of 500. There is and additional $160,000! so at least $310,000 for this one patient in the last 4 years, not counting the mother. I found another patient with 80 visits in two years, ad another with 47 in 8 months. This is ridiculous, to say the least.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Swine Flu

Do you realize there have been 595 swine flu deaths in the US already? Second only to Brazil. 2,000 cases have been reported on the campus of washington state alone. I heard on the news about an ER nurse who died recently as well....
Mallet and The Hogs Cruise to easy victory over Missouri St. ! Go Hogs!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Gameday!

Get ready for the HOGS!! See you at War Memorial Stadium!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Repeat Offenders

Check out this news story! It is old, but I just remembered it. It details how 9 people accounted for 2700 ER visits in the Austin, TX area over a six year period. I am sure that we have some similar people at our hospital, and I aim to find out. I know a few names and I'm going to ask my attendings for a few more and see if I can find similar results. I will let you know. I think we only have EMR back 5 or 6 years from right now, but should be enough to see the big offenders, and it shouldn't be hard to think of who they are. I'm not sure if we have people that are THAT bad, that averages out to 300 visits per person, and this article talks about visits to all area hospitals total, while I only have access to our records, but I think the numbers will still be impressive. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/01/0401er.html

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Go Hogs

Can't wait to see the Hogs back in Little Rock at War Memorial Stadium! Petrino is orchestrating the "Razor Rock" week and things couldn't be better in Hog Country. The Razorbacks are such a common ground amonst all residents of the state, and when they come to Central Arkansas, I couldn't be happier. Go Hogs!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Razor Rock

An exciting week is under way as Bobby Petrino orchestrates Razor Rock Week in Little Rock. Can't wait for the home opener against Missouri State! Go Hogs!