AAEM Shares the IOM's Concern With America's Health Care Safety Net.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2000

The American Academy of Emergency Physicians (AAEM) fully agrees with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, America's Health Care Safety Net, and calls for urgent solutions.

Essential missions of AAEM are to ensure high-quality emergency care for all comers and that staffing with board certified emergency physicians is necessary to achieve this goal.

Despite a healthy economy, employer-sponsored health coverage is unaffordable for one in six working Americans. Justifiably, emergency medical (EM) care has been made a universal right by the EMTALA, the federal law that places emergency physicians as the final medical safety net.

Unfortunately, the absence of funding for EMTALA to match the current demand for EM services by the uninsured has severely weakened the safety net.

Emergency departments are less prepared than ever. Over the past decade, visits increased 14% while the number of departments declined 9%, hence frequent overcrowding. Recent influenza outbreaks have resulted in many hospitals bypassing ambulance cases. Besides being busier than ever, some metropolitan hospitals still allow moonlighters not board certified in EM to take care of very sick children and adults.

"This practice contributes to medical mistakes and is motivated purely by financial disinterest in promoting quality emergency care," says Tom Scaletta, MD, AAEM board member.

Robert McNamara, MD, president of AAEM, insists, "the problem will worsen each year as federal cutbacks make it more difficult for hospitals to maintain their emergency departments. While our members are dedicated to high quality care regardless of a patient's financial situation, the federal government has set up a situation in which emergency treatment is mandated but not funded. In other words, they set things up to fail. The IOM study clearly defines the problem and now we need to work on solutions rapidly."

Scaletta notes that, "the problem with the rising number of uninsured effects emergency physicians more than any other physician group. The barriers the uninsured face to scheduling primary care visits result in minor emergencies festering into major ones and a higher proportion of minor emergency visits. In addition, many managed care and Medicaid patients experience similar barriers."

AAEM is a national organization representing board certified emergency physicians and headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For further information regarding the EM safety net, contact AAEM at 800/884-AAEM.