Trends in Emergency Medicine

The demand for emergency medicine and visits to medical emergency departments (EDs) was on the increase according to the “National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2001 Emergency Department Summary: 2001.” The increase in recent years contributed to busy conditions in emergency departments, and ambulance changes. The Center for Studying Health System Change study dispelled the accepted conviction that under insured consumers are the key causes of inflated emergency medicine use. Insured Americans accounted for most of the 16% rise in visits during the years 2000-2001. Even though insured consumers accounted for much of the boost in emergency medicine use, uninsured Americans progressively depend on emergency medicine because of limited access to other resources of primary medical care.

As the United State economy continues in a downward spiral, employees will continued to be laid off and/or unemployed. Employees no longer have health insurance, and are added to the ranks of the uninsured. The boost in emergency medicine visits by uninsured consumers could have grim repercussions for overflowing in public medical centers, and other security net organizations that care for an excessively high number of uninsured consumers.

The Benchmarks of Fairness for Health Care Reform notes that the United States of America is still the only industrialized country in the world that fails in assuring its citizens access to medical services. Less than half of the requests for emergency medicine visit are classified as either emergent or urgent. Voluntary private health insurance has customarily been seen as the respond for covering medical expenses. In the United States, nearly half of all employers choose not to offer health insurance to their employees according to Donald W. Light. The effect is that about 80% of the 40 millio
Americans who are without health insurance are workers or their dependents.

With the increase utilization of emergency medicine, there is an increase need for emergency medicine personnel. Primarily there is a need for trained doctors in emergency medicine. Emergency Medicine Residency Program like the one at UCLA Medical Center incorporated Olive View-UCLA Medical Center as its second major training site in 1985. According to The UCLA/Olive View-UCLA Emergency Medicine, the faculties are active in an extensive array of Emergency Medicine research areas. The areas of most noted research are including health services research, medical informatics, and infectious disease. Interesting active research looking at the needs of today consumers include stroke research, pre-hospital care, clinical bedside ultrasound, and medical education.

The goal of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)'s Patient Safety Initiative is to identify, understand, and reduce the medical errors, risks, hazards, and harms associated with health care system-related problems. One AHRQ funded research program focused on increasing the use of clinical pharmacists in emergency medicine. The project aims to provide evidence to demonstrate the value of using emergency pharmacists in the emergency department. A second AHRQ funded project is Banner Health/ASU Partnership for ED Patient Safety. This project aim to reduce patient’s risk through a patient flow process that reduces the patient’s waits time.