Emergency department
hideThe emergency department (ED), sometimes termed the emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW), accident & emergency (A&E) department or casualty department is a hospital or primary care department that provides initial treatment to patients with a broad spectrum of illnesses and injuries, some of which may be life-threatening and requiring immediate attention. Emergency departments developed during the 20th century in response to an increased need for rapid assessment and management of critical illnesses. In some countries, emergency departments have become important entry points for those without other means of access to medical care. The abbreviation ER is generally used throughout the United States, while A&E is used in many Commonwealth nations. ED is preferred in Canada and Australia, and Casualty is common in Scotland.
Upon arrival to the ED, people typically undergo a brief triage, or sorting, interview to help determine the nature and severity of their illness. Individuals with serious illnesses are then seen by a physician more rapidly than those with less severe symptoms or injuries. After initial assessment and treatment, patients are either admitted to the hospital, stabilized and transferred to another hospital for various reasons, or discharged. The staff in emergency departments can include not only doctors and nurses, but physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners with specialized training in emergency medicine and in house Paramedics and/or emergency medical technicians, respiratory therapists, radiologic technologists, Healthcare Assistants (HCAs), medical scribes, volunteers, and other support staff who all work as a team to treat emergency patients and provide support to anxious family members. The emergency departments of most hospitals operate around the clock, although staffing levels are usually much lower at night. Since a diagnosis must be made by an attending physician, the patient is initially assigned a chief complaint rather than a diagnosis. This is usually a symptom: headache, nausea, loss of consciousness. The chief complaint remains a primary fact until the attending physician eventually makes a diagnosis.
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News tagged with emergency room
Study: CT scans rule out heart attacks faster
Nov 18, 2009 |
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(AP) -- A new study suggests that a type of "super X-ray" can give a faster, cheaper way to tell whether a chest pain sufferer is really having a heart attack.
Swine flu prompts hundreds of schools to close
Oct 28, 2009 |
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(AP) -- The number of students staying home sick with the flu is multiplying nationwide and normally quiet school nurses' offices suddenly look like big city emergency rooms, packed with students too ill ...
Obama declares swine flu a national emergency
Oct 25, 2009 |
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(AP) -- President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect noninfected ...
The Medical Minute: There's no trick to a safe Halloween
Oct 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Halloween is supposed to be a spooky night, but parents don’t have to be scared about their kids’ safety if they follow some simple safety tips from Safe Kids Dauphin County, led by the Penn State Hershey ...
Insured African Americans more likely to use emergency room than other insured groups
Oct 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- African Americans enrolled in HMOs are far more likely to use the ER and to delay getting needed prescription drugs than HMO-insured members of other racial and ethnic groups, a new study has found.
Web tool helps advise when flu needs a doctor
Oct 07, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Wondering if swine flu's bad enough to require a doctor's attention? An interactive Web site may help you decide, using the same type of triage calculations that doctors at Emory University use.
Emergency Departments Do Not Provide Timely Care for All Patients
Oct 01, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In a new study, Yale University researchers document a disturbing lack of consistency among U.S. hospitals in how quickly they treat patients in emergency rooms. Furthermore, some hospitals ...
Report: Flu might fill up hospitals in 15 states
Oct 01, 2009 |
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(AP) -- If a third of people wind up catching swine flu, 15 states could run out of hospital beds around the time the outbreak peaks, a new report warns Thursday.
McTriage: Hospitals use drive-thrus for swine flu
Sep 29, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Fast-food places have them. Banks and pharmacies do, too. Now hospitals are opening drive-thrus and drive-up tent clinics to screen and treat a swelling tide of swine flu patients.
Danger of swine flu is not what it is, but what it could become
Sep 28, 2009 |
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Swine flu is not a danger for what it is, the experts say. It's a danger for what it could be. That's why officials are pushing swine flu vaccine, which should start arriving as early as Oct. 6.
Adverse drug events: a large burden in pediatric care
Sep 28, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An 11year national analysis at Children's Hospital Boston shows that side effects or accidental overdoses of medications are a common complication of outpatient care in children, generating more than half ...
More than half million kids get bad drug reactions
Sep 28, 2009 |
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(AP) -- More than half a million U.S. children yearly have bad reactions or side effects from widely used medicines that require medical treatment and sometimes hospitalization, new research shows.
Don't Rush To The Emergency Room If You Think You Have 'Swine Flu'
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- You wake up a bit dizzy with a headache. By the time you dress and arrive at work, your throat is sore and your nose is runny. You're running a slight temperature. Could it be H1N1 flu? Should you rush to ...
Cheap, quick bedside 'eye movement' exam outperforms MRI for diagnosing stroke in patients
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 18, 2009 |
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In a small "proof of principle" study, stroke researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Illinois have found that a simple, one-minute eye movement exam performed at the bedside worked better than an MRI to distinguish ...
50 million new patients? More primary docs a must
Sep 13, 2009 |
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(AP) -- When Dr. Robert Flaherty launched a private practice in 2001, he soon found himself cramming in as many patients as possible to make ends meet, leaving little time to discuss with them the steps they could take to ...
