Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-68ccn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T19:14:32.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emergency Medicine in the United States. Role in Disaster Planning and Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2017

Bruce Feldstein
Bruce Feldstein
Affiliation:
American College of Emergency Physicians. 197 Elm Street, Oberlin, Ohio, USA44074
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

International organizations such as the World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine (Club of Mainz) have brought attention to the need for improved worldwide emergency medical services (EMS) systems and disaster preparedness (1). Similar concerns in the United States (US) for improved emergency medical care have resulted in the organization of emergency medicine as a new medical specialty (2). The practice of this specialty of medicine in some ways differs from the practice of emergency medicine, reanimation medicine, or resuscitology, in Europe. In the United States, emergency medicine specialists provide emergency care for the full range of emergency health conditions, including accidents and trauma, medical emergencies, toxicologic emergencies, psychiatric and social emergencies, and disasters. This care is provided primarily in hospital emergency departments and includes the immediate initial recognition, evaluation, treatment and disposition of these patients with acute illness and injury. For continuing care, patients are referred to their own physicians.

Emergency medicine physicians provide medical direction for community EMS and supervise the prehospital emergency medical care provided by non-physicians (emergency medical technicians and paramedics). Emergency physicians engage in the administration, research and teaching of all aspects of emergency medical care. They also provide consultation to governmental and nongovernmental organizations on emergency health care issues. Recently, with the basic framework of emergency medicine established, attention is being given to disaster planning and management.

Type
Section Three—Organization
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , Fall 1985 , pp. 272 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Frey, R. The Club of Mainz for improved worldwide emergency and critical care medicine systems and disaster preparedness. Crit Care Med 1978; 6:389.Google Scholar
2 Riggs, L. A vigorous new specialty. New Engl J Med 1981; 304:480–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3 Shortliffe, E, et al. The emergency room and the changing pattern of medical care. New Engl J Med 1958; 258(1):20–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4 Gray, BK. The rise of emergency medicine. Emergency Medical Services 1982; 11(1):39–41.Google ScholarPubMed
5 Mills, J. Improved care is a common goal. J Amer Coll Emerg Phys 1972; May/June 19–33.Google Scholar
6 Definition of Emergency Medicine. Annals of Emergency Medicine 1981; 10:385–388.Google Scholar
7 Directory of Medical Specialties - 20th Edition, 1981–1982.Google Scholar
8Fact Sheet. The American College of Emergency Physicians, P.O. Box 61911, Dallas, Texas, USA 75261.Google Scholar
9 Standards for Graduate Training in Emergency Medicine. J Amer Coll Emerg Phys 1979; 8:432–433.Google Scholar
10 Emergency Medicine Core Content. J Amer Coll Emerg Phys 1979; 8:34–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 The American Board of Emergency Medicine. Directory of Medical Specialties - 20th Edition, 1981–1982; 261–263.Google Scholar
12 The role of the emergency physicians in mass casualty/disaster management. J Amer Coll Emerg Phys 1976; 5:901–902.Google Scholar