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
Parent mentors can improve the asthmatic care of minority children, researchers find
Nov 30, 2009 |
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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that informed adults can help families stave off complications associated with asthma. The findings, available online and in the December issue of Pediatrics, suggest that i ...
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.
Search results for emergency room
Need for emergency airway surgery for hard-to-intubate patients reduced
Nov 17, 2009 |
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Be prepared, that old Boy Scout motto, is being applied with great success to operating room patients whose anatomy may make it difficult for physicians to help them breathe during surgery, Johns Hopkins researchers report ...
Don't add an ER visit to your holiday plans
Nov 18, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- UNC emergency physician Abhi Mehrotra, M.D., explains how you can avoid the most common injuries that land people in a hospital emergency department during the four-day Thanksgiving holiday period.
Smart phones allow quick diagnosis of acute appendicitis
Nov 30, 2009 |
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Radiologists can accurately diagnose acute appendicitis from a remote location with the use of a handheld device or mobile phone equipped with special software, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of ...
CPR is successful without mouth-to-mouth, but not without oxygen
Nov 30, 2009 |
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People can survive cardiac arrest if they receive only chest compressions during attempts to revive them - as advised by the current American Heart Association guidelines. But they cannot survive without access to oxygen ...
CDC Confirms Four New Cases of Oseltamivir (Tamiflu)-Resistant H1N1
Nov 20, 2009 |
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Tests performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the request of infectious disease experts at Duke University Medical Center have confirmed this week that isolates from four patients with H1N1 influenza ...
When seconds count: Interventional radiology treatment for pulmonary embolism saves lives
Nov 11, 2009 |
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Catheter-directed therapy or catheter-directed thrombolysis -- an interventional radiology treatment that uses targeted image-guided drug delivery with specially designed catheters to dissolve dangerous blood clots in the ...
A brief intervention that works for drivers who persist in driving while intoxicated
Nov 19, 2009 |
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Driving while impaired (DWI) contributes significantly to road-traffic crashes, and is involved in more than one-third of all fatalities. Many DWI recidivists - drinking drivers who re-offend - do not participate in mandated ...
Few Americans make end-of-life wishes known
Nov 12, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Lillian Landry always said she wasn't afraid to die. So when death came last week, the 99-year-old was lying peacefully in a hospice with no needles or tubes. Her final days saw her closest friend ...
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