Healthcare Delivery

The following statement was created by the Women in Emergency Medicine Section (WiEMS-AAEM). It was approved by the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) Board of Directors on Monday, September 30, 2024. In the two years since the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision, the ability to care for pregnant persons is no longer uniform across the […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) recently released a public statement in response to an announcement that a nurse practitioner was accepted into an Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship program.  We were specifically responding to the original statement by the program which when released stated, “his appointment as the ‘first-ever’ APRN to the Point-of-Care Ultrasound […]

Dear Attorney General Garland and Chair Khan: On behalf of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft update of the Merger Guidelines, issued on July 19, 2023. AAEM was established in 1993 to promote fair and equitable practice environments necessary to allow emergency physicians to […]

American Physician Partners (APP) recently announced they are ceasing business operations by the end of the month. Their announcement on July 17th gives hospitals and physicians only two weeks to ensure continued care for patients. This is reckless, unethical, and simply dangerous.  This is one more example of the untoward effects of private equity backed […]

It has come to our attention that Aetna has published a clinical policy bulletin on the medical necessity for ultrasound guidance on certain procedures. We have many concerns about the document as outlined below. Indeed, the evidence supporting ultrasound guidance to improve safety, benefits, and in some cases efficacy, is in fact strong. On behalf of our combined membership of >16,000 clinicians, we request a virtual meeting with you within the coming weeks to further discuss the policy. We hope to assist with more effective solutions that will NOT lead to unsafe care, low quality care, or increased barriers to care.

Like all members of the medical community, we at the American College of Medical Toxicology, American Academy of Emergency Medicine, and American Academy of Clinical Toxicology were saddened to learn of the tragic death of a patient in Tennessee due to a medical error. A nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center mistakenly administered a drug […]

Vicki Norton MD FAAEM, AAEM Board of DirectorsSaba Rizvi, MD FAAEM AAEM recognizes UnitedHealthcare’s deferment of their dangerous and ill-advised policy to limit patients seeking emergency care. Patients who fear they are having a true emergency should not be deterred from going to the emergency department. They should not be concerned about their insurance later […]

AAEM believes that emergency physicians are entitled to wear self-supplied PPE including respirators that meet NIOSH standards when, in their medical opinion, hospital or healthcare facility supplied PPE is inadequate. AAEM will offer support to any emergency physician threatened or terminated for attempting to protect themselves and their patients in this manner. This includes assistance […]

AAEM endorses the following points regarding the emergency treatment and discharge of patients with psychiatric and/or social problems: AAEM believes that all ED patients should be discharged under conditions that are safe and account for their personal dignity. AAEM encourages communities to establish effective options for persons in need that would enable them to avoid […]

Position Statement: Emergency Physicians are Not Responsible for Providing Routine Follow-Up Care and Screening It is the position of The American Academy of Emergency Medicine that follow-up care is beyond the scope of practice of emergency physicians and that care in the Emergency Department should encompass diagnosis and treatment and stabilization of acute emergency medical conditions. Therefore: […]

It is AAEM’s position that physicians at work in an emergency department should be notified in real time as soon as a threat of violence to their hospital or emergency department becomes known.   Approved: 9/14/16  

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine opposes the emergency services reimbursement provisions outlined in the interim final rule of the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that sets insurer compensation rates for out-of-network providers of emergency services.  Emergency departments play an integral role in our healthcare system.  In addition to treating urgent and emergency […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine opposes the emergency services reimbursement provisions outlined in the interim final rule of the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that sets insurer compensation rates for out-of-network providers of emergency services.  Emergency departments play an integral role in our healthcare system.  In addition to treating urgent and emergency […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine discourages the practice of setting admission goals or admission rates for emergency department patients. The Academy further discourages inducements from hospitals or other interested parties meant to encourage or enforce these admission goals. Such inducements may include bonuses, penalties or linkage of admission rates to the rewarding or renewal […]

Freestanding emergency departments (FSED) have the potential to address several intractable problems in emergency medicine, especially overcrowding and lack of access to emergency care, a loss of autonomy for emergency physicians, and widespread violation of emergency physician practice rights at hospitals. FSEDs serve emergency medicine as an innovative practice model, expanding the reach of emergency […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine believes that patients requiring emergency care need universal access to both high quality pre-hospital and emergency department based medical care. AAEM recognizes the vocation of pre-hospital medicine to include patient advocacy and transportation of patients to facilities best able to deliver the services they require. AAEM also recognizes the […]

In some medical institutions, due to limited physician coverage, the emergency physician is required to respond to various in-hospital (out-of-ED) situations. This is particularly true during evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays. In those institutions with single emergency physician coverage, responding to such situations leaves the ED without direct physician coverage. This then deprives ED patients […]

by Howard Blumstein, MD FAAEM and Raymond Roberge MD MPH FAAEM Based on a suggestion from an AAEM member, we have begun to develop a policy statement regarding coverage of emergencies involving patients who are already in the hospital. The reality is that in many small hospitals there is little high quality care available for […]

WHEREAS typical emergency physicians do not provide practice inpatient medicine; WHEREAS admitted patients benefit by one primary physician orchestrating a treatment plan and by these orders being scrutinized by the nurse that will initiate those orders; WHEREAS emergency department nurses, due to increasing patient volumes and nurse shortages, rarely have sufficient time to transcribe admitting […]

AAEM is committed to provide for all patients needing emergency care by each and every emergency department without regard to economic ability, insurance or payor status. Emergency physicians provide this care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the AAEM calls upon employers, third party payers and managed care organizations to support AAEM […]