And now for the news…
Rick Abbott looks at the news in Tassie and at home in the States, which leads him to contemplate beanies for cops, the fires in Colorado, medical insurance and the joys of electronic health records.
Retrievals: Too… to stay here!
Retrievals: we don't use the term in the US - moving a patient from one hospital to another, even in the rare instance that a Doctor is in attendance, is a transfer.
I’m so old that…
Rick Abbott turns back the clock to the 1970s and takes a stroll through the years as he reminisces about emergency past.
Namaste! No overcrowding here…
Working as a doc in the Annapurna region of Nepal - a place where waiting room overcrowding didn't exist. In fact, waiting rooms didn't exist...
No emergency? No, thanks…
Uninsured in the US and diagnosed in the ER with a potentially lethal condition that isn't deemed an 'emergency', the hospital is not obliged to treat you
Overcrowded, understaffed and underfunded
Rick Abbott wonders why ERs across the world seem to have a few things in common: they're almost all overcrowded, understaffed and underfunded.... What can be done about it? It's just not cricket!
How much is that doggie in the ICU?
Rick Abbott has seriously gone walkabout this time... He's crossed the species barrier to see what emergency physicians can learn from our veterinary colleagues.
The Other Type of Swiss Cheese
There are a hundred ways I could begin this piece. I don’t know which is best. I have tossed the introduction up and around until it’s lost its sharp angry edges, but then it doesn’t lie down on the page…
It costs what?
Rick Abbot, our 'American ER Doc Gone Walkabout', dives into the murky quagmire of medical costs in the United States and makes a comparison with what he experienced in Australia. At least he tries to...
The Registrar sits at the desk registering patients. Right?
Rick Abbot provides the 'American ER Doc Gone Walkabout' perspective on emergency medicine training in Australia and the United States. He also figures out the difference between a resident and a registrar...
Emergency Imaging in Tassie
Rick Abbott gives us his take on the good, the bad and the ugly of the different emergency radiology services he's encountered in Tasmania and the United States.
All I need to do is write a final diagnosis, right?
Rick Abbott zooms through time and space to share his personal experience of paperwork, billing and health records in emergency medicine.