Stating the nation’s emergency care system is “teetering on the brink of collapse,” emergency physicians shared examples of emergency departments that “remain woefully underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded and overwhelmed,” while testifying before a congressional hearing focused on what the federal government has done since the release of the landmark “The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System” Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports one year ago.
“最近在洛杉矶港港港港医院的急诊部门候诊室候诊室的死亡是一个最新的例证，这是全国急诊部门在急诊部门变得太常见的问题。”拉蒙约翰逊博士，美国急诊医师学院（ACEP）董事会成员和洛杉矶急诊医生。
“政府对全国急诊室危机的回应”在美国议员主持的监督和政府改革委员会的美国议员委员会举行的。亨利·沃克曼（D-CA）。
“紧急医生和护士致力于拯救生命，”约翰逊博士说。“But in a system struggling with the closure of hundreds of emergency departments in the last 10 years because of huge amounts of uncompensated care, and in which ambulance diversions and the ‘boarding’ of patients in ER hallways for hours and sometimes days at time have become commonplace, we simply can’t always get to everyone. And if we can’t get to you, we can’t save your life.”
Johnson博士，他是Carif的使命医院的急诊医学系副主任，Cailif viejo Mission Viejo。，指出，作为前线的紧急护理人员，他和他的同事们“痛苦地意识到急诊部门如何过度拥挤和不利地抵消每天都会影响患者。“作为一名插图，他与急诊患者的相关案例“等待11小时即可看到，担架上的患者排队靠在墙上等待床三个或更多个小时，并且由于缺乏可用的床而与患者一起包装患者密集护理单位。
“简而言之，”约翰逊博士说：当IOM的报告被释放时，“我们比一年前没有比我们更好的事情。所以今天我站在你面前并问：'我们国家的政策制定者回应什么？“
Joining Dr. Johnson on the panel, among other experts, were Dr. Robert O’Conner, professor and chairman, department of emergency medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., and Dr. C. William Schwab, professor and chief, division of traumatology and surgical critical care, University of Pennsylvania Critical Care, Philadelphia, Pa.
小组成员一起概述措施占ACEP和其他组织近几个月才能解决国家的急诊科危机，包括：
- A September 2006 Capitol Hill rally involving more than 4,000 emergency physicians and nurses who gathered in the nation’s capital to protest Americans’ endangered access to emergency care and demand that Congress pass legislation that would end the boarding of admitted patients in hospital emergency departments, support emergency medical care as an essential public service and solve the professional liability crisis in emergency medicine.
- 2006年1月的ACEP首个“国家报告卡”发布了一份“应急医学状态”，以培训急救医生的国家致力于为他们提供适当的实践环境，并为他们服务的患者提供适当的实践环境。
- The promotion of the findings of the three IOM reports on emergency care through two summits, including a March 2007 summit in which 15 allied health-care organizations developed a consensus on several of the reports’ recommendations and began working together to see that they are implemented.
In addition, U.S. Reps. Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) have introduced the Access to Emergency Medical Services Act of 2007 (H.R. 882) in the House of Representatives, and U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have sponsored a companion bill (S. 1003) in the Senate. This proposed legislation seeks to address the dangerous trends outlined by the 2006 IOM reports, including specifically the widespread lack of preparedness for disaster.
“如果颁布，这种立法将确保我们的急诊部门将拥有他们需要保持开放的资源，并为患者提供及时和充分的紧急护理，”Johnson博士指出。“此外，拟议的立法要求医院向卫生和人类服务部统计数据报告有关有多少患者被登录的统计数据以及多长时间。它将创建一个委员会来检查影响紧急医疗服务的交付的因素。
“我们深深地了解公众，深入了解紧急医疗，并期望立法者在第110次国会将其成为优先事项，”约翰逊博士说。“现在达到国会和联邦政府的其他分支机构，以履行其义务，并确保我们的国家的患者在紧急护理情况下拥有所需的资源。”
ACEP是一家国家医学专业社会，代表急诊医学，拥有超过25,000名成员。ACEP致力于通过继续教育，研究和公共教育来推进紧急护理。Acep总部位于德克萨斯州达拉斯，亚佩斯有53章，代表每个州，以及波多黎各和哥伦比亚地区。政府服务章节代表了军事分支机构和其他政府机构雇用的紧急医生。
