I had the wonderful pleasure this Wednesday and Thursday to attend the Neuroscience Conference hosted by Capital Health Center at the Borgata, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.    One of the speakers was Mr. David Knowlton.  Mr Knowlton is the President and CEO of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute. He is a fantastic […]

Being an ED physician, “thank-yous” are certainly few and far between.

“They aren’t learning to be fry cooks – they will be responsible for peoples lives!” I explained to my nurses that the observation time provided to these students to see what the Emergency Department staff actually does is crucial.

What really blows my mind is that the system we currently operate in does not mandate any minimum standards for providers (mainly BLS, as ALS is in my opinion OVER regulated), does not require an ambulance to be licensed by the Department of Health nor meet any minimum standards, nor mandate minimum response times. Better yet, EMS in New Jersey isn’t even considered an essential service like police, fire, and municipal services are. It’s simply, sickening.

As my thirteen year old daughter would put it, “it bites” being stuck working on Christmas Eve in the Emergency Department. Considering how busy we normally are on a typical work day, the fact that I am able to sit here with the nurses at the computer typing this entry I find thoroughly amazing. Since 2:00 pm today, my staff and I have been keeping a tally of what pathology has shown up so far.