the County Consult

A Cook County Hospital Emergency Medicine Blog for up-to-date medicine and more.

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**Source:** Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The Social Disposition – Balancing Medicine and the Law: Immigration Officers in the Emergency Department

March 8, 2024

The State of Affairs:

In 2022, we welcomed a million migrants to the United States, and this number is climbing (1). Many migrants, especially undocumented persons, utilize the emergency department as their primary care home due to inequities in health care access affecting this group. In order to deliver holistic and equitable care and build trust with your patients, it is important to understand both the rights of our patients and our immigration enforcement officers in the acute care setting. Below we will describe just this and provide tips for making your Emergency Department (ED) a safe place for everyone to receive health care within their rights.

Adam Roussas, MD and Rashid Kysia, MD

The Cheese - Opioid Withdrawal Treatments and Adjuncts in the ED

February 22, 2024

Picture this: it’s 11:02pm on a Friday Night. Red Team is bed-locked and you’re doing your best hospitalist impression while managing all of the boarding patients. The nurse comes up to you and says, “Hey, this patient in bed 26 is endorsing heroin withdrawal, can we give them something for it?” What’s your next move? Here we discuss the treatment of opioid withdrawal in the emergency department.

Vladimir Bernstein, MD

The Social Disposition - Food Insecurity

October 18, 2023

Food insecurity has many implications for patients, including associations with frequent ED use, foregoing medication to afford food, and worsening control of chronic medical conditions. Screening for food insecurity is a potential tool for EPs to utilize to improve patient outcomes, assist in adherence to treatment plans, and reduce ED utilization.

Michael Hohl, MD and Rashid Kysia, MD