Understanding diagnostic safety in emergency medicine: A case-by-case review of closed ED malpractice claims.

The report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care calls for collaboration between professional liability insurance carriers and health care providers to identify opportunities to improve diagnostic performance. We used this collaborative approach and involved risk management/patient safety professionals and emergency medicine physician reviewers to analyze diagnosis-related emergency medicine closed claims from a large malpractice insurer. Our aim was to identify opportunities for risk reduction and to develop an approach for improving at-risk processes.

Adirondack Park incidents: a retrospective review of search and rescue reports from 2008 and 2009.

Background: The Adirondack Park is a 6 million acre recreational area in northeastern New York used for activities such as hiking, camping, canoeing, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, and rock climbing. Given the large number of people who use the Adirondacks for recreation, there exists the potential for many accidents, injuries, and illnesses to occur in areas ranging from state-operated campgrounds to remote backcountry.

Objective: The aim of this study was to gain insight into the demographics of search and rescue (SAR) operations in the Adirondack Park.