Dr. Kusum Mathews is a pulmonary and critical care physician and researcher at Mt. Sinai in NYC. She staffed the first week of her hospital’s COVID ICU. The week started off with only a few COVID-19 positive patients and escalated to having patients spilling over into multiple ICU areas by the end of the week. Dr. Mathews discusses her experiences with vent management, the ethics of vent distribution, and coping mechanisms in the stressful and challenging working environment caring for critically ill patients with COVID-19.
We are in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The mortality is highest in older adults. 
Many EDs around the world are working to become Geriatric EDs or geriatric-friendly EDs. 
The Greatest Generation. There’s a reason the oldest patients in our Emergency Departments have earned this title. They’re resilient, stoic, and sometimes even sneaky. They’re our absolute favorite patients to care for. And if your ED is anything like ours, there are days where it seems like the average age in the department is over 75. 
For older patients, there are risks of being discharged home, but also risks of being admitted to the hospital. In some cases in the ED the decision to admit or discharge a patient is not cut and dry. In this episode, Dr. 
If you haven’t used clevidipine for hypertensive emergencies, you may want to give it a try. It comes as a pre-mixed bottle, has a fast onset (2 minutes), you can titrate up at 90 second intervals, and the terminal half-life is 15 minutes! Its onset and half-life are very similar to propofol, so if the BP drops due to other factors (hemorrhage, loss of sympathetic tone, etc) then you can easily titrate it down.
This month we are looking at advance directives, DNR orders, living wills, MOST, and POLST forms. If you don’t understand what all of those are, then you should definitely listen! I am joined by Drs. 
Older adults often present to the ED for or with confusion or agitation. It is important to have a framework for assessing these patients, diagnosing the presence of delirium or dementia, looking for underlying causes, preventing worsening, treating the underlying condition, and sometimes treating the symptoms. The 
