EM Beyond the ED: Using Technology to Expand Our Reach

Emergency physicians are familiar with consulting specialists for their focused expertise. What happens when we challenge the paradigm and the emergency physician becomes the specialist?

We have a unique skillset, comprised of identifying acuity (atypical presentations of typical symptoms), managing flow (directing patients to ED evaluation versus rapid outpatient evaluation), and breadth of medical knowledge (clinical support to urgent care, home health, and other colleagues within the hospital system)? Here we describe a large multihospital Emergency Medicine Consult program that provides several services across the hospital system, including ED teletriage, urgent care and home health consults, and rapid virtual ED evaluations. We share lessons learned from one hospital system's 5-year implementation of this program, and teach how the emergency physician can improve flow throughout a hospital system, with the use of innovative tech-assisted triage and consult platforms. With reductions in left without being seen rates, door-to-provider times, and numerous safety catches, an Emergency Medicine Consult program leverages the inherent EM skillset to improve safety and quality of care delivery.