Health Highlights: Oct. 9, 2007

ByABC News
March 24, 2008, 1:34 AM

Mar. 23 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Patients Have Died Due to Crowded Emergency Rooms: Survey

Patients have died because of crowded conditions in U.S. emergency departments, according to some doctors who took part in a survey released Tuesday by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) at its annual meeting.

The survey of 1,496 emergency physicians found that nearly 80 percent (1,200) expressed grave concerns about overcrowding in their emergency departments. Half of the respondents said they'd personally encountered a patient who'd suffered due to "boarding" -- a practice in which admitted emergency patients wait (often in hallways) for an inpatient bed in the hospital. And 200 doctors said they knew of patients who'd died because of boarding.

The poll also found that 80 percent of respondents said crowded conditions have worsened in the past year, while 21 percent said their hospitals actively support ending or reducing the problem of boarding.

The ACEP is calling for an Emergency Patients' State of Rights that would include: the right to emergency care; the right to privacy; the right to be treated in a reasonable amount of time; the right to health plan coverage based on symptoms; the right to move out of the emergency department to an inpatient area once admitted to the hospital; and the right to access on-call specialty consultants.

The organization also wants Congress to pass the proposed Access to Emergency Medical Services Act, which would provide more funding to emergency departments.

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Major Gaps in European Flu Pandemic Plans

There are major weaknesses in European plans to deal with a possible flu pandemic, says a study published Tuesday in the October issue of the WHO Bulletin.

Problems with vaccine and antiviral drug distribution, insufficient stockpiles, and jumbled plans for border controls were among the shortcomings identified by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who looked at pandemic planning in 29 European countries, Agence France-Presse reported.