The 2010 American College of Emergency Physicians’ Scientific Assembly is in Las Vegas this year.

I’ve registered, bought plane tickets and have a marker on a box under a bridge (but very near the convention site, so I’m good).

So, time for you EP’s to get in there and register, and, I’m going to blog it (unless ACEP gets a court order preventing it (they weren’t interested in me blogging for their house blog, so only time will tell…)).

Oh, as a service to my three ACEP readers I plan to get enough freebie pens from the exibitors to give one to each of you when I meet you.

Yeah, I’m a giver.  Or a re-gifter.  Whatever.

I’m more interested in the sub-plot of this cops and robbers, and armed citizen story:

FORT WORTH — A 55-year-old man who police suspect tried to run down a Fort Worth officer last month, prompting the officer and a concerned citizen to open fire at the car, is now in jail, police officials confirmed Tuesday.
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The officer, unaware of the 911 call, had gone to investigate the businessman’s report when the driver of the Mercedes suddenly accelerated toward him, police have said. The officer was able to dodge the car and fired several shots at the fleeing Mercedes.

A citizen who heard the gunfire and believed the officer had been shot and killed, retrieved his own gun and also shot multiple times at the Mercedes as it passed him on West Exchange, police have said.
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Criado said the concerned citizen did not have a concealed handgun license but “we don’t see any reason to charge the citizen who fired at the suspects believing they had killed the officer.”

via Man suspected of trying to run down officer in Stockyards arrested | Crime and Safety | ….

In many lesser states our Concerned Citizen would be in huge trouble.  But this is Texas; let this be a lesson to you.

Recently, in the ED, I was seeing a patient who was left with something of a stammer/stutter after a prior stroke.

It was kind of a long history, and probably longer for the patient, who had to work very hard to be understood through their unwanted speech impediment.

Inexplicably, when I walked out of the room I started stuttering; I wasn’t trying to make light of the patients’ problem, and I had to stop talking for a few moments before I could speak in my normal cadence (and while in the patients’ room I was speaking normally as well).  It was super-strange, like my brain heard the new cadence and said ‘oh, this is how we do it’.  Awful.

It was embarrassing, and weird.  Fortunately the patient didn’t hear it, and I apologized to the staff that did.  I have no idea why my mouth/brain combo picked that anomaly to repeat.  Strange.

Anyone else have this?

Why I use Bing instead of Google: June 6th Version – Jessica’s Well.

Time for a second look at Bing.

Wow, I’ve been promoted from crank to prominent critic!

A prominent critic of the process is Allen Roberts, MD, who blogs as Grunt Doc. http://gruntdoc.com. “I'm a proud member of ABEM,” he said. “I know they have this continuous certification thing going that has been forced on them by ABMS. And I understand the idea behind the yearly test [the Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment].

via Breaking News: EPs Push Back Against ABEM MoC : Emergency Medicine News.

I remain a critic of this Continuous certification, and find some of the responses to be laughable, but I’ll save that for another post.

(Are there any other critics of this, or is it really just me?)

From the Triage nurses: I’ve made it.

More and more patients present themselves at triage, and when asked “Who’s your regular doctor”, they say “GruntDoc”.  Nice to be noticed, I suppose…sorta flattering, and yet…

We have a doc in the group who’s been practicing EM in the county for about 30 years, and roughly half the county identifies him as their doc.  I’ll never catch him, thank goodness.

So, it’s taken me 8 years, but I’m There.

Wow, 8 years, this week.  I hadn’t realized it until I typed that out.

The Move from Midland (nice place, tough job), the Unsettled period, the Money Pit (a work in progress), youngest through and out of grade school and a year of college, eldest married off and a second grandchild, middle through the Rough Patch of his own and now through Law School, several iterations of “pent-up consumerism”, and some cruises.  Another college degree for me.  Not last my lovely wife who puts up with me through it all.

Also, the best EM job on Earth, bar none.  Busy, well supported, excellent colleagues and above-average consultants (and totally awesome nurses, techs, secretaries, etc), I totally lucked out on landing this job.  I had no idea how good it would be, and hope to work here until I’m tired of it, and not they’re tired of me.

Life is Really Good.  Seriously Good.

Thanks for stopping by!

Critics Question Study Cited in Health Debate

By REED ABELSON and GARDINER HARRIS

In selling the health care overhaul to Congress, the Obama administration cited a once obscure research group at Dartmouth College to claim that it could not only cut billions in wasteful health care spending but make people healthier by doing so.
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But while the research compiled in the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care has been widely interpreted as showing the country’s best and worst care, the Dartmouth researchers themselves acknowledged in interviews that in fact it mainly shows the varying costs of care in the government’s Medicare program. Measures of the quality of care are not part of the formula.

via Data Used to Justify Health Savings Effort Is Sometimes Shaky – NYTimes.com.

Really, it’s like the decided what they wanted, then went and found data to back that up.  Bad data, sure, but it says what we want!