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Goals and Learning Outcomes

While the demand for emergency department (ED) care remains high, EDs continue to decline in number nationwide. Those that remain are overcrowded and at capacity, often having patients wait hours or even days to be admitted. Although many seek care in the ED for an acute injury or illness, others seek treatment for acute exacerbations of poorly managed chronic illness, such as diabetes, or management of a chronic illness in the absence of an acute problem, such as for blood pressure control and cardiac or asthma medication refills. The ED has become the largest provider of unscheduled primary care visits, seriously stressing the healthcare safety net. Patients in the ED are staying longer for prolonged observation and complex diagnostic workups. There is an increasing number of critically ill patients being treated and cared for in the ED rather than the critical and intensive care unit. Additionally, chronic mental and psychiatric patients often seek treatment in the ED rather than with individual providers. This has resulted in overcrowding in the ED, putting strain on its personnel.

This course has a maximum of 3 exam attempts.


After taking this course, you should be able to:

  • Explain the reasons for the increase in patients who seek chronic care in the ED
  • Identify common disorders of patients who seek chronic care in the ED
  • Describe how chronic care in the emergency setting differs from that in traditional primary care settings
  • Identify the common chronic physical and mental health conditions for which patients seek care in the ED.
  • Determine the financial impact of patients seeking chronic care in the ED and measures to mitigate it.
  • Define how chronic care in the emergency setting differs from that in traditional primary care settings.

Course Termination Date: Not yet determined

Content Expiration Date: 12/31/24

Course Originally Released On: 11/01/21

Course Authors

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Accreditation Information

NURSES

In support of improving patient care, Relias LLC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, CEP#13791

Disclaimer: Not all courses will provide California Board of Registered Nursing approval. Per California Assembly Bill No. 241, continuing education courses related to direct patient care shall address at least one or a combination of the following:(1) Examples of how implicit bias affects perceptions and treatment decisions of licensees, leading to disparities in health outcomes; or (2) Strategies to address how unintended biases in decision-making may contribute to health care disparities by shaping behavior and producing differences in medical treatment along lines of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics.

 

CEBroker

Relias LLC reports to CEBroker for the following boards (Provider # 50-1489): Arkansas State Board Of Nursing, District Of Columbia Board Of Nursing, Florida Board Of Nursing, Georgia Board Of Nursing, Kansas State Board of Nursing, Kentucky Board of Nursing, Michigan Board of Nursing, Mississippi Board of Nursing, New Hampshire Board of Nursing, New Mexico Board Of Nursing, North Dakota Board of Nursing, South Carolina Board Of Nursing and West Virginia Board Of Registered Nurses

 

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Disclosures

None of the planners/faculty, unless otherwise noted, for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.