EDs will focus on critical care
The EDs of the futures will look "far more like critical care centers," predicts Thom A. Mayer, MD, FACEP, president and CEO of Best Practices an emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, and physician leadership management firm based in Fairfax, VA.
"Even small ones will be geared toward taking care of really sick patients," he says. This care will be enabled by the advent of assistants to help physicians with computerized documentation, he says.
"We will spend our time really as physicians and not as modified clerks or techs," Mayer says. "ED shifts will be much more intense, and we will generate much more revenue per hour because we will see more patients."
Accordingly, he says, ED physicians will only be able work six- or eight-hour shifts because of the increased intensity, "but it will be extraordinarily more satisfying."
Denise King, RN, president of the Emergency Nurses Association, sees a shift in delivery of care that fits in with Mayer's prediction. "The trend of retail clinics is a huge shift in our society, and it will continue, bringing health care much more to the community," King says. "I estimate that between 40% and 50% of patients seen in EDs do not need be seen there and could be seen in retail clinics."
King also sees a shift in the individuals who actually provide the care. "Traditionally, that has always been the physician, but we've seen change creeping in through the use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants," she says. "We see it more and more in the ED setting."
The retail clinics often are run by nurse practitioners, who King says are certainly qualified. "As there are not enough doctors, there is a good possibility they'll be even more active in the ED, but that depends on what happens in areas outside of the ED," she says. If the retail clinics can drain off that 40%-50%, King says, "they can leave the EDs with truly the sickest of the sick."
Sources/Resource
For more information on the future of technology in the ED, contact:
- Denise King, RN, President, Emergency Nurses Association, Des Plaines, IL. Phone: (800) 900-9659.
- Linda Laskowski-Jones, RN, MS, ACNS-BC, CCRN, CEN, Vice President, Emergency, Trauma, and Aeromedical Services, Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, DE. Phone: (302) 733-1835.
- Thom A. Mayer, MD, FACEP, President and CEO, Best Practices, Fairfax VA. Phone: (703) 667-3463. E-mail: [email protected].
For more information in the LifeGurney, contact:
- Hoana Medical, 828 Fort Street Mall, Suite 620, Honolulu, HI 96813. Phone: (808) 523-5410. Fax: (808) 523-5480. E-mail: [email protected]. Web: www.hoana.com.
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