The latest issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine includes an editorial that calls for a new model for emergency departments that integrates emergency medicine with the health care system. The goals are to increase value and promoting cost savings. Dr. Andy Sama, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians which publishes Annals, said, “it is unclear how emergency departments fit in the new payment models of health care reform, but according to this new model of emergency medicine, there should be a much stronger focus on patient care coordination. And to save money in the health care system, the focus must be on reducing hospital admissions, rather than on diverting minor injuries and illness from the ER, which has inconsequential savings.”

Dr. Shantanu Agrawal, one of the two authors of the editorial, wrote, “We must build on the successes of rapid, outcome-centered treatment of complex and diagnostically challenging cases—sepis, acute myocardial infarction, stroke, and patients with multiple complex conditions—to leverage and adapt the best of emergency care. The goal must certainly be focusing on complex and emergency preparedness capacity to provide adequate capabilities for unpredictable, emergency situations and access to other necessary ED services, such as pediatric or trauma care.”