Casey Jackson

C. Douglas
UWRT 1102-025
27 April 2015
A Topic For Discussion: Emergency Department For Patient Safety
In society today there are many events occurring that leave many various people
with opinions of about them or what should be or not be. Also these opinions may
constantly change throughout time. These controversies range over any given topic and
some could mean a lot to some people and no so much for others. However, the delicate
situation of life and death encompasses an argument that is not to be taken lightly or halfheartedly. It consists of many different voices that. This controversy that is voiced is if
keeping the emergency department in hospitals is an essential way to continue to provide
patients with face-paced, efficient patient care because of the around-the-clock time
frame and easy to access environment said to not be found elsewhere.
The emergency department was introduced in the United States in the 1980s
having formally been only emergency rooms. The department was created with the
purpose of providing an easy accessible place for trauma and other urgent health needs.
The practice has its own specialty, emergency medicine, which was recognized in 1979
by the American Medical Association (Clark). Healthcare involves many different people
of different career and professions in order to operate, including the emergency
department. There are three major voices of the emergency department patient safety
controversy and these include that of the federal government, medical professionals, and
the patients or potential patients.

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The federal government is the voice with the most lawful control over the
controversy being that it is the authority figure of the healthcare system. It is responsible
for setting law into place to keep stable order in the system, which means an efficient
emergency department is desired by it. The federal government also is the main
contributor for managing insurance policies enforcement, system progression and set up,
and the safety and protect of the people in the emergency department. Hospitals and
insurance companies may vary with specific aspects but everything enforced in the
emergency department falls under the federal government (Clemmit).
Statements about budget and money are very popular when dealing with the
voices of the individuals of federal government and the emergency department. It is often
voiced that the emergency department wastes valuable budget and patient safety and care
of the ED can be replicated without the department (Clark). It is up to the government to
be able to balance budget with patient safety. Emergency medicine professionals were the
only specialists to be required by federal government to attend to and screen every patient
who walks through the emergency department doors. With the voice of the federal
government, the Affordable Care Act was set into place in 2010 by the government to
provide patients entering the emergency department with Medicaid so that way patient
safety was focus on as well as budget. This helps to show that the federal government
also has a voice that favors patient safety while still conserving budget (Mantel).
Medical professionals from the hospital also have a major voice in the
controversy of whether the emergency department is a key essential to excellent patient
safety and care in a hospital. They provide an opinion from a side that first handedly
observes the daily occurrences in the emergency department and throughout the hospital

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(Clark). The medical professionals that have a voice towards the argument are not only
those who specialize in emergency medicine but also those all throughout different
departments in the hospital. With their powerful knowledge of the medical system, strong
education and research, and their own personal motive for becoming a part of the field,
the individuals are highly skilled in arguing the topic of if keeping the emergency
department in hospitals is an essential way to continue to provide patients with facepaced, efficient patient care.
The voice of the medical professionals in the hospital express a need for the emergency
department with numerous benefits to trauma cases, lowering mortality rates, and the
satisfaction of giving patients the most effective fast-paced treatment (Clark). Jonathan
Jackson, a medical dosimetrist working in the radiation oncology department in a hospital
voices, The importance and implication of the ED at any hospital is a
vital role in providing for patients. Patient care benefits greatly from
the use of an ED at any hospital. Other individuals of medical
professions agree that without the emergency department, patient
safety would suffer in other departments because of major increased
flow of patients (Mantel). With the voice of the medical professionals
backed up with knowledge and experience in the field, it is a major
voice in the controversy of if keeping the emergency department in hospitals is an
essential way to continue to provide patients with face-paced, efficient patient care.
Patients that arrive in the emergency department have a viewpoint that pertains
around themselves and how well they want to be taken care of. Many individuals make
up this voice since the emergency department estimates around 136 million visits were

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made in 2014 (Clark). Their argument bases around their personal worries for individual
safety and care or for family member care. Patients are the main aspect of what the
controversy with emergency departments in hospitals begins with. They are the most
often expressed voiced because of such strong concert of own personal health.
The voice of the patients in the emergency department is that of personal concern
and personal benefits. While some patients voice a want for the emergency department to
feel safe and cared for, others voice differently. Some individuals would rather be cared
for at other healthcare providers such as urgent care for various reasons such as costs.
Also some patients voice that emergency departments in hospitals are so busy that a lot of
malpractice occurs. This causes those patients to not return to the emergency department
but rather seek out primary care as a treatment. The CDC reported that 1 out of every 20
patients a year receive an infection in the hospital. The desire for the patient care the
emergency department provides is expressed through patients who voice that the ED is
very easily accessible and is quick with treatment or diagnosis (Mantel). Patients portray
the most demanding of all voices because of the quantity of them as well as how personal
the situation is to them.
Controversies exist extensively throughout the society today ranging from
many topics. A controversy that could lead to life or death is a highly opinioned one. The
voices that come along with that of the controversy of if keeping the emergency
department in hospitals is an essential way to continue to provide patients with facepaced, efficient patient care because of the around-the-clock time frame and easy to
access environment said to not be found elsewhere are that of the federal government,
medical professionals, and patients. With so many voices, decisions of laws and options

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of care are constantly changing. The future of the emergency department is not concrete.
With patient lives at risk with this argument, it is important to understand different
viewpoints of the discussion in order to gain full insight to the impact of it. One day
could that patient be you?

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Work Cited
Clemmitt, Marcia. "Assessing the New Health Care Law." CQ
Researcher 21 Sept. 2012: 789-812. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
Clark, Charles S. "Emergency Medicine." CQ Researcher 5 Jan. 1996: 124. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
Mantel, Barbara. "Patient Safety." CQ Researcher 10 Feb. 2012: 125-52.
Web. 3 Feb. 2015.