Practice Management
The patient is a 34-year-old male who presents with bilateral ocular pain and burning. He is noted to have excessive tearing and continuous eye rubbing. He comments that his eyes itch persistently and that both eyes feel as if there is something in them. Scaly plaques and crust are visible along the top and bottom eyelid. View the picture taken and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution of the case is …
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Parents bring their 2-year-old boy to an urgent care center after noticing that his right pupil looks white, and that the eye is excessively teary and looks bloodshot. They report that they boy has also complained that it hurts on occasion. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis would be
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A 40-year-old man presents to an urgent care center with an acutely painful red eye in which he has blurred vision. He notices a bit of a headache and that there are some halos around lights, but he says that he has not experienced nausea or vomiting. When reviewing his medical history with you, he notes that he recently started taking a new antidepressant. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis …
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A 35-year-old woman presents with a history of 1 day of pain in her right eye, photophobia, and decreased vision. There is no history of trauma. One day earlier, she was seen at an urgent care center, where the diagnosis was a corneal abrasion, and she was treated with topical trimethoprim-polymyxin. Her symptoms have worsened, so she has returned for further evaluation. View the image taken (Figure 1) and consider what your diagnosis would be.
Read MoreHeadaches are both common and challenging, accounting for 4% of ED visits and comprising the eighth most-common complaint seen by primary care physicians. This frequency can create a false sense of security, as there are numerous life-threatening etiologies hiding in the “haystack.” In this month’s case, our patient was a bounceback on her first visit, having previously seen her PCP and an urgent care doctor. In addition to a brief discussion of headaches and their …
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Other than these medical errors, dyspnea and advanced age were the two most common factors associated with an unscheduled return visit. What is the incidence of bouncebacks? What is the incidence of bounceback admissions? What is the inci- dence of death in patients recently discharged from the ED? What percent of bouncebacks occur because of medical errors? How can we use this information to improve patient safety? This month, we will discuss Question IV: What …
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