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8 emergency medicine physicians and leaders on what's misunderstood about the specialty today

We're incredibly successful for being a relatively new specialty. People continue to 'speak with their feet,' as we say. They're showing up to EDs in increasing numbers because they want prompt, accurate and efficient care. We are misunderstood, though, because people think many of these visits are for non-emergencies. This has led to what I call a 'moral injury' leading to stress for our physicians and nurses. Moral injury starts with our specialty being devalued and undervalued, resulting in payers trying to figure out ways to not pay us. We practice with an unfunded mandate, EMTALA — the act that truly defines who we are. We take care of anyone at any time, regardless of their ability to…

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 The profit-obsessed monster destroying American emergency rooms

Private equity decimated emergency care in the United States — without you even noticing. The story of how private equity has been able to so thoroughly debilitate emergency care is one of the more dramatic examples of how corporate interests are corrosive to America’s health care system — and how powerless they leave individual consumers. Today, private equity continues to operate a shocking quarter of ERs nationwide, as of March 2024.

Articles of Interest

Best Paid Emergency Medicine Resources

FOAM (Free Open Access Medical education) is all well and good. But for the best resources on the net you gotta pay a little money. The best educators out there deserve a little bit of remuneration for their time and effort. Websites like LITFL are amazing and great for a quick look-up. Especially on shift. But for proper learning, revising and building a knowledge base you can't start there.

Children Are Dying in Ill-Prepared Emergency Rooms Across America

Hundreds of children die or are left severely injured around the country each year after they are rushed to hospital emergency rooms that are poorly prepared to treat them. Only about 14% of emergency departments nationwide have been certified as ready to treat kids, or are children’s hospitals specializing in treating young patients, The Wall Street Journal found.

Despite an opioid crisis, most ERs don’t offer addiction treatment. California is changing that.

The ER is one place where this broader approach can begin. Most emergency rooms across the country, though, do not offer this care. Much of that is caused by stigma toward drug use and addiction, which can make it difficult to persuade ER doctors to do something they historically haven’t done. But even if health care providers do want to offer addiction treatment, there are concerns: How do you do it? Will it be expensive? Where will patients go for continuing care after they leave the emergency department, especially in a country where treatment options are often inaccessible or nonexistent?

Doctors Agree: Finally, a Medical Drama That Gets It Right

The Pitt,’ the new Max series produced by ‘ER’ alums and set in an emergency ward, has earned the respect of real-life medical professionals

E.R. Doctors Misdiagnose Patients With Unusual Symptoms

Doctors fail to recognize serious conditions like stroke and sepsis in tens of thousands of patients each year, according to a new study.

Emergency Medicine’s Original Sin

The misperception that paramedics are merely ambulance drivers is everyone’s problem.

Fewer Doctors Are Choosing to Go into Emergency Medicine

Hundreds of unfilled residency spots in emergency medicine are telling us that critical care is in trouble.

Gore or glamour? A career in emergency medicine

Accident and emergency medicine, renamed emergency medicine, has always been popular. Glorified by countless television shows, it is enjoyable, challenging, and draining. The specialty is about to undergo changes in its training structure, and future services are being debated.

Medicine is the most emotional profession. This story proves it

There you are in your father’s arms. He is practically running to keep up with the triage nurse. The nurse is walking quickly toward the room that we leave open for true emergencies and the sickest patients. Your father’s eyes are full of fear, and the nurse’s tone is worrisome. I look down at you all snuggled up to your father’s chest. You are beautiful. So small and bright-eyed. You don’t recognize how hard your body is working, and you are just taking in all the sights and sounds around you as any baby would.

The Challenges Doctors Face in the Emergency Room

As an emergency medicine physician in New York who fought on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic in some of the hardest-hit hospitals in the nation, I am shocked by how you presented the data in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality study on “Diagnostic Errors in the Emergency Department.” The study demonstrated that emergency medicine physicians have an impressive rate of about 95 percent diagnostic accuracy. It’s a surprisingly high degree of accuracy considering these diagnoses are made in a rapid time frame with limited resources (nursing shortages, overcrowding), span every single medical specialty (neonatology to neurosurgery) and are sometimes made in conditions that put the doctors’ own lives at risk (pandemics, workplace violence).

The Growing Challenges Of Emergency Medicine

There is no imaginable reality where accidents and emergencies cease to exist. By the very nature of both of those terms, unplanned events occur, often requiring specialized, curated, emergent care. Therein lies the value of emergency medicine (EM)—"the medical specialty dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of unforeseen illness or injury,” according to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).

The Skeptics' Guide to EM

The SGEM faculty and guest skeptics try to cut the KT gap from over ten years down to less than one year. It does this by using social media to provide you with critical appraisals of the recent literature. The ultimate goal of the SGEM is for patients to get the best care, based on the best evidence.

What Do People Google Before Going to the E.R.?

Study reveals that patients’ health-related searches doubled in the week before an emergency room visit.

Why I Love Emergency Medicine

Emergency medicine is a tremendously diverse, varied field that attracts people for many different reasons. But no matter what, one of the most important parts of choosing a specialty – any specialty – is the other people working next to you. Yes, I love EM for the excitement, for the opportunity to use the full breadth of my skill set, and for its work/life balance. I love it for the Doing of Things, for the bright lights and shiny objects of codes and traumas, and for treating people essentially from scratch. But on top of all that, I knew when I started spending time in the ER that I had found my people. Once you’ve discovered that, the rest is easy.