MEdIC Series: The Case of the Orphaned Patient – Expert Review and Curated Community Commentary
Our seventh case of season 5, The Case of the Orphaned Patient, presented the scenario of a junior orthopedic surgery resident rotating in the ED and receiving significant pushback when trying to transfer the care of a clinically deteriorating patient to a more appropriate service. The outcome of this pushback was a patient without a service feeling primarily responsible for further care, leaving the patient “orphaned” in the ED. If you haven’t had a chance yet, we urge you to check out the case and share your thoughts on this important topic!
The MEdIC team (Drs. Tamara McColl, Teresa Chan, Sarah Luckett-Gatopoulos, Eve Purdy, John Eicken, Alkarim Velji, and Brent Thoma) hosted an online discussion around the case over the last 2 weeks with insights from the ALiEM community. We are proud to present to you the curated commentary and our expert opinions. Than you to all participants for contributing to the very rich discussions surrounding this case!

It’s almost the end of your sixth shift in a row. You are trying to finish up notes when you hear an overhead page. You find yourself in the middle of a pediatric code that has a poor outcome and you have 5 minutes to spend with the family before being pulled into another patient’s room. You have no time to address the difficult case you just encountered. As an emergency physician, this may happen on a daily basis but some cases hit closer to home. How do you recover after these shifts, and how do you prepare for the next difficult patient encounter? Members of the
We had an AMAZING kick-off this week at the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) Academic Assembly, welcoming our NEW 2018-19 ALiEM Faculty Incubator Class of Educator-Scholars! We received applications from across the country and internationally from budding scholars with a broad range of background and experiences. We narrowed it down to the top 32 applicants, who we know are rising leaders in education scholarship.
Our sixth case of season 5,
We are incredibly proud and excited to announce the launch of the 2018-19 ALiEM Chief Resident Incubator. Emergency medicine (EM) Chief Residents have recently been selected across North America to help shape and lead EM residency programs. The “CRincubator” will be enrolling its fourth class, building quickly on lessons learned and ongoing feedback from the membership. Led by Dr. Tanner Gronowski (Chief Operating Officer) and Dr. Robert Cooney (Chief Strategic Officer), this group will also feature legacy advisors, senior advisors, all-star cast of returning alumni champions, several surprise virtual mentors. Thanks to our exclusive sponsors EBSCO Health / DynaMed Plus.