Breaking Bad News

One of the hardest roles of the emergency physician is giving bad news to a patient or their family members. We review the challenges of this difficult task and introduce a method that can be used to effectively communicate to our patients and/or their families.

AMA after Narcan – Is it safe?

In comes a 34-year-old male who is obtunded with pinpoint pupils and breathing at five times a minute; likely due to heroin abuse.  He wakes up after Narcan is appropriately administered, but now he wants to leave.  What is the risk of death if he leaves?  Do we restrain him against his will to monitor him …

ALTO at it again

The ALTO program (Alternatives to Opioids) at St. Joe’s has already received national recognition for its work here. In March we held a legislative summit that was attended by U.S. Senators Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, US Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr and multiple other members of the local and state government to discuss the opioid epidemic and the ALTO initiative. Then we were lucky enough to have the New York Times write a story recent story in June on the ALTO program as well. Not to be outdone, EM Resident recently published a piece to introduce the EMRA readers to the wonders of ALTO and the success we have had thus far with the program, check it out here.