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Posted on 01-12-2006 21:03 by Imron

This is one of the unique challenges of EM development. An immediate
friction to new emergency physicians here is airway management.

It is traditional here to call the duty anesthetist whenever airway maangement is required. There will be hard time convincing the management & consultants of the hospital to put this trust in EM physicians. But it is definitely possible.

Endotracheal intubations, nasal packing, CV line placements, FAST ultrasound scans, chest tube insertions, etc, all cost money. And specialty depts will want to cash in on this. But EM is always known to be time critical. Any sensible EM physcian will not wait for even a few seconds to put that ET tube in neither will he wait for 1 hour for a tube thoracostomy.

This kind of anti EM tendencies is not seen in EM depts with high patient load or in non corporate set ups.

The worst are small hospitals where every procedure is profit. It will be
hell for the EM physician there where he will never get to do a procedure.

We have to accept that we really are eating some of their money. BUT, they (consultants & admininstrators) will have to understand that patient care is what will improve dramatically. When this is seen, EM will be respected.

And this is really happening. Believe me!