With the emergency department (ED) being a high-risk area of liability for the hospital, the presentation will focus on legal and risk management issues that health care providers face while caring for patients in this high-risk environment.

During this session, Sue Dill Calloway will explain how to comply with selected Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital CoPs and Joint Commission standards that are problematic for emergency department staff and include how the visitation law affects the ED and the CMS anesthesia standards on the use of deep or moderate sedation in the ED. Ms. Dill Calloway will further discuss the impact of the new CMS worksheets along with the new changes regarding the use of standing orders, as well as highlight the issue of alarm fatigue and the impact in the ED. She will identify the most common medication errors that occur and how to avoid them, and discuss the CMS CoP changes which require all ED nurses to have training on blood transfusion and IV medication. Finally, the importance of discharge instructions will be reviewed and how they can help prevent unnecessary readmissions.