The Real Crisis in the ER: Systemic Dysfunction vs Financial Concerns

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The ACEP and RAND Study

Interview with David Schriger, Peter Viccellio, and Al Sacchetti, MD's

Four decades of emergency medicine experience reveals how the specialty continues to normalize dysfunction while failing to articulate what emergency care should look like. Veterans explore solutions to the systemic problems that have kept emergency departments "at the breaking point" for over 30 years.

• Emergency physician compensation ranks around 16th among medical specialties—not the financial crisis some portray
• Working conditions, not compensation, represent the true crisis in emergency medicine today
• Emergency departments generate 33-50% of hospital revenue, but this value is rarely recognized by administration
• Physicians have accepted and normalized dysfunctional practices like hallway medicine instead of demanding change
• Simple solutions like elective scheduling smoothing and enhanced discharge programs work but aren't widely adopted
• Emergency medicine needs to define and demand what optimal practice should look like
• The healthcare system tries to solve 7-day-a-week problems with 5-day-a-week solutions
• Hospitals contain chaos in emergency departments to maintain predictability on inpatient floors
• Emergency physicians increasingly moving into hospital leadership roles where they can implement systemic improvements

Listen to our next episode where we'll explore how new emergency physicians can advocate for better workplace conditions despite institutional resistance.

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