Emergency Room Visits in Southern California Increase

A board-certified emergency medicine physician, Zachary Lutsky, MD, practices in Southern California. Dr. Zachary Lutsky began his career as an emergency medical technician at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, and has since been on staff at such hospitals as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Between 2006 and 2016, emergency department visits in California increased by about 4 percent each year. Meanwhile, from 2010 to 2016, emergency department visits in Southern California increased by 27 percent. During that same time, the area’s population grew only by 5 percent, so the increase in ER visits wasn’t solely the result of a population increase.

Instead, the rise in emergency department visits has been attributed to the higher number of insured individuals in Southern California. In Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles counties, Medi-Cal recipients went from being 25 percent of emergency room users to being around 50 percent of users. Plus, the number of uninsured ER visitors dropped from 18 to 8 percent.

Of those who visited the ER, many were homeless with mental health conditions. Unfortunately, the entire state has too few beds in psychiatric and drug rehabilitation facilities. As a result, people with these issues are looking to sleep in emergency departments rather than these other facilities.

Despite this increase in ER visits in Southern California, the average wait time to see an emergency department health care professional improved slightly from 2013 to 2016. Still, emergency waits in the state as a whole are roughly an hour longer than national wait times. Fewer patients were also admitted to Southern California hospitals, suggesting that they were effectively treated in the ER and released.

Antibiotic-Resistant Disease - MRSA

For more than a decade, Dr. Zachary Lutsky worked as an emergency physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. As a medical professional, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has concerns regarding antibiotic-resistant diseases, one of the best-known of which is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

MRSA causes infections in various parts of the body and occurs when certain strains of staphylococcus aureus (staph) infect the body. Unlike typical staph infections, MRSA resists commonly-used antibiotics, making it more difficult to treat. Since it was first discovered in 1961, this bacterium has developed resistance to most common antibiotics, and regularly develops new resistances. About one in 50 people carry the disease, though most lack infections.

While MRSA most commonly occurs in hospitals, which may contain many immunocompromised patients who spread the disease, it can also occur in otherwise healthy people outside of hospitals. These infections often occur when large numbers of people congregate in close quarters regularly, such as athletes, military personnel, and prison inmates. Those in these categories should take care to have any strange bumps, sores, or infections assessed by a medical professional.

Addressing the Issue of Antibiotic Resistance

Zachary Lutsky, MD, graduated at the top of his class at RFU/Chicago Medical School before going on to become an accomplished emergency physician, including at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he served for more than a decade. Throughout his career, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has had an interest in topics such as antibiotic resistance.

Posing a significant risk to public health, antibiotic resistance arises primarily from an overprescription of antibiotics. As urgent care centers across the country prescribe antibiotics for the common cold and other viral ailments unaffected by antibiotics, patients become at risk for gut issues and allergic reactions.

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that 30 percent or more of antibiotic prescriptions are gratuitous. This overprescription may lead to a loss of antibiotic effectiveness.

To combat this problem, the White House issued The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in 2015, setting a goal for decreasing overprescription by half within five years. Some groups have tackled the issue by providing lists of non-antibiotic alternative prescriptions and requiring that the reason for prescribing an antibiotic be indicated in patients’ electronic health record.

Sudden Pains that Require a Visit to the Emergency Room

Dr. Zachary Lutsky is a board-certified practitioner of emergency medicine. For over 10 years, Dr. Zachary Lutsky provided medical care to patients with acute illnesses and severe injuries as an attending physician for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Emergency Department.

Sudden pain can be a sign of serious injury or illness that requires immediate treatment. Here are a few types of pain symptoms that should be addressed with medical attention.

Abdominal Pain -- Abdominal pain is often a symptom of serious conditions such as appendicitis or a ruptured spleen. Sudden pain combined with fever and/or bloody bowel movements, or abdominal pain that remains for longer than a few days, is a sign of a serious problem.

Testicular Pain -- Intense pain that appears suddenly may signal that the testicle is twisted. This is a dangerous condition that can prevent blood flow to the area. Testicular pain accompanied by nausea or fever should also be examined by a doctor.

Back Pain -- If lower back pain appears simultaneously with abdominal pain, it may be a sign of an aneurysm in the aorta, an artery that pumps blood throughout the body. The combination of these symptoms suggests that the aneurysm has ruptured the aorta, which can be life-threatening.

Headaches - Indicators That Emergency Care Might Be Appropriate

Since completing his graduate medical education in emergency medicine, Zachary Lutsky, MD, has practiced emergency medicine throughout California. In the course of doing so, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has diagnosed and treated a wide variety of conditions, including severe headaches.

Among the most common reasons people go to the emergency room, headaches can be a sign of a serious underlying medical problem. For example, medical emergencies like strokes and encephalitis can give rise to headaches. However, most headaches aren’t caused by a serious medical condition.

How can patients differentiate between dangerous headaches requiring immediate medical attention and common headaches that do not? If a person experiences a sudden headache with uncharacteristically severe pain, perhaps the worst headache pain they’ve ever encountered, they should call 911 or go immediately to an emergency room, as this could be a sign of internal bleeding.

Headache symptoms that worsen over a 24-hour period should also prompt an individual to seek medical attention. Headaches with additional symptoms like trouble seeing or speaking, vomiting, neck stiffness, paralysis, and/or fever are also among those that should compel someone to seek immediate medical care.

Type 2 Diabetes More Aggressive among Young Patients

Serving the needs of Southern California patients, Zachary Lutsky, MD, most recently engaged as an attending physician with the Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Zachary Lutsky handled a wide range of emergencies, from heart attacks to shootings, and has a strong knowledge of general medicine.

With type 2 diabetes on the rise among young Americans, recent research has shown that diagnosis with the condition at an early age significantly elevates the mortality risks associated with stroke and heart disease.

According to the director of Montefiore Medical Center’s Clinical Diabetes Center in New York, type 2 diabetes is more aggressive when experienced among the young than when it targets the elderly.

This elevated impact is felt in areas such as inflammation, insulin resistance, and weight, all of which are associated with premature cardiovascular disease. In addition, it results in elevated lipotoxicity, or the unwanted buildup of cholesterol in areas of the body such as the kidneys, heart, and liver.

One area in which type 2 diabetes does not translate into increased risk seems to be cancer, with one reason being the slow initial rate of growth of such diseases, which are typically not diagnosed until the later years.

ER Screening for Women at Risk of Postpartum Depression Yields Results

An experienced emergency room physician, Dr. Zachary Lutsky most recently served in the Emergency Department of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. As part of his work, Dr. Zachary Lutsky remains apprised of developments in the emergency medicine field.

There are several challenges when it comes to diagnosing and treating postpartum depression, especially given the stigma that still surrounds the illness. One of the approaches that is gaining traction, however, is the use of emergency departments as safe spaces for mothers in these situations.

Recent research surrounding postpartum depression screenings in the ER led to the development of several treatment interventions within emergency departments, including connection with a trained social worker. Those who were shown to be a greater risk were also connected to clinical professionals such as psychiatrists. When later interviewed, the women who participated in the research overwhelmingly rated their screening experience as positive and pointed to it as an important part of their postpartum care.

Electrical Stimulation of the Brain May Improve Stroke Recovery

A skilled physician, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has been practicing medicine for over 15 years. He has focused his career in the area of Emergency Medicine, serving in the emergency departments of several hospitals. Working in the ER, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has worked with many patients who have suffered strokes.

After a stroke, only a third of patients recover completely. The remaining two-thirds suffer from either paralysis or movement problems that continue long after the stroke.

These movement issues cause difficulties for patients in the home and in the workplace. Fortunately, scientists from UC San Francisco are working to help patients with mobility issues.

A new study published in Nature Medicine looked at neural activity in rats and discovered that low-frequency oscillations (LFOs) were found in the rats’ brains before and during their actions of grabbing a food pellet. In humans, these LFOs help the neurons in the primary motor cortex fire, which allows humans to engage in voluntary movement.

After the rats suffered strokes, their LFO levels were reduced but gradually returned, and they recovered their ability to move precisely and quickly. This demonstrated a strong correlation between the re-emergence of LFOs and the recovery of mobility. Considering epilepsy patients who had suffered strokes and also had reduced LFOs, researchers believe electrical stimulation of the brain may help patients regain their motor functions more quickly following a stroke.

Knowing the Symptoms of Stroke Saves Lives

Dr. Zachary Lutsky earned his medical degree from the Chicago School of Medicine and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. For over 12 years, Dr. Zachary Lutsky delivered medical care to trauma patients at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. 

Strokes are one of the leading causes of death and disability for Americans and one of the major reasons for emergency room visits. Obtaining fast medical attention is key to recovering from a stroke and preventing long-term damage. Fatalities due to strokes have decreased in recent years due to easier access to treatment centers and an effective awareness campaign launched by many stroke and heart health associations.

One campaign has popularized the acronym FAST (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) to help people remember and identify the early symptoms of stroke. FAST means that if you notice face drooping, weakness in the arms, or slurred speech, now is the time to call 911 and request medical help. Arriving at the hospital within three hours of the first signs of stroke greatly reduces a patient’s likelihood of developing stroke-related disabilities later on.

How ER Professionals Can Stay Calm in Stressful Situations

A graduate of Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University, Dr. Zachary Lutsky has spent more than two decades working as an emergency physician. Most recently working as an attending physician at the emergency department for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Zachary Lutsky handled every type of medical emergency, including heart attacks and car accident injuries.

Here are a couple of tips to help ER professionals stay calm when things get stressful:

- Be prepared for any situation. The more knowledge you have, the easier it is to stay calm. For this reason, ER professionals must be prepared for all kinds of different situations.

- Communicate. Communication in the emergency room is key to ensuring patients are properly cared for. Throughout an emergency, ER professionals are either listening or talking. This constant communication with patients, patients’ family members, and other hospital workers allows ER professionals to work as efficiently as possible.