Position Statements

Emergency departments utilizing a “provider in triage” model should: Ensure that providers have an opportunity to perform an appropriate history and physical prior to ordering diagnostic testing; Conduct appropriate reviews to verify that over-testing is not occurring from triage based providers; Provide advance practice providers with supervision and support by board certified emergency physicians. Approved […]

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 […]

The introduction of the electronic medical records system into the practice of medicine has brought great benefits and presented great challenges to the doctor patient relationship.                                 Multiple studies have shown both benefits and detriments with EMRs. Benefits include a reduction in medication errors, which is the number one cause of adverse events,1 and fast […]

Whereas the volume of ED visits continues to rise and now exceeds 100 million in the United States annually; and Whereas the scope of Emergency Medicine requires a high intensity of service for many conditions, especially during the first hour of treatment; and Whereas emergency medicine involves patient evaluation, interval assessments, complex decision-making, time-intensive procedures, […]

The American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM) define the standards for the specialty of Emergency Medicine. Certification by ABEM or AOBEM obviates any additional certifications required for medical staff privileges or disease-specific care center designations, such as that needed for trauma or stroke centers. Major Emergency […]

AAEM White Paper on Acute Pain Management in the Emergency Department Sergey Motov, MD FAAEM Reuben Strayer, MD FRCP FAAEM Bryan Hayes, PharmD Mark Reiter, MD MBA FAAEM Steven Rosenbaum, MD FAAEM Melanie Richman, MD FAAEM Zachary Repanshek, MD FAAEM Scott Taylor, MBBS Benjamin Friedman, MD FAAEM   Effective, efficient, and safe pain management is […]

AAEM opposes the oversight and management of emergency medicine residency programs by contract management groups with lay ownership. AAEM is concerned that this arrangement raises significant conflicts of interests between a residency program's educational mission and the contract management group's fiduciary duty to its shareholders.   Approved: 9/7/17  

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  

Emergency physicians have the responsibility for all emergency patients’ care and disposition — including which patients require involuntary holds. The regulations concerning psychiatric holds or detainments vary from state to state. Some states require that law enforcement places a patient in an involuntary hold status without physician input. EPs should have the responsibility for patient […]

Medical scribes should be considered ancillary staff members employed to assist the emergency physician with data entry and documentation requirements. Their function should be to free the emergency physician to focus on clinical duties.  All information entered or generated in a health care record by a medical scribe should be reviewed for accuracy by the treating […]

The number of psychiatric patients who present to emergency departments (EDs) has increased in the last few years; many of these patients will need to be admitted to an inpatient bed. The care of psychiatric patients in the ED is commonly delayed by limited involvement of psychiatric specialty personnel and lack of psychiatric resources in […]

AAEM believes that evidence for testing psychiatric patients as part of medical clearance process clearly states that the testing should be clinically based, similar to other patients in the ED, and, individually based upon the particular patient presentation.  Consistent with the literature on the topic, AAEM opposes routine laboratory testing of psychiatric patients in the […]

AAEM encourages prescriber and pharmacist access to prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), which can be a useful tool to identify possible prescription drug abuse. AAEM supports the interstate data sharing between state PDMPs and calls for standardization between states and the eventual creation of a federal PDMP. PDMPs should report prescriptions in real-time and be […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) opposes emergency department wait time guarantees. Wait time guarantees potentially compromise patient care by forcing emergency physicians to reduce their attention on truly emergent patients to ensure that less-emergent patients are seen within the wait time guarantee interval. As wait-time guarantees do not take into account patient acuity […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) opposes joint ventures between a hospital or hospital system and a corporate emergency medicine contract management group (CMG) whereby a portion of the emergency physician professional fee is distributed to the hospital or hospital system and the CMG in excess of fair market value for services performed.  Such an arrangement […]

It is the position of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine that, when properly applied to an individual patient for whom the clinician already has a low clinical suspicion for PE, based on a gestalt impression, the Pulmonary Embolism Rule-Out Criteria (PERC) meets the standard of care for EM. When a patient is PERC negative […]

Emergency departments and emergency physician’s primary directive is to care for ill and traumatized patients presenting in an unscheduled fashion. This is constructed without regard for ability to pay and with a high expectation for accurate and timely evaluation and management to exclude and treat emergent and urgent life and limb-threatening conditions. Increasingly limited resources […]

Introduction Prescription drug abuse has become an issue of national importance. The number of deaths from prescription opioids now exceeds those caused by heroin and cocaine combined. In order to help stem this epidemic there has been a call for more judicious prescribing on the part of physicians.1 The AAEM offers this model guideline to […]

Emergency physician contracts should not include indemnification or “hold harmless” agreements regarding the hospital or practice site. These agreements unfairly shift risk to emergency physicians and this risk is not generally insurable.   Published: 2/10/12  

Heatherlee Bailey, MD FAAEM Director of Critical Care Education, Division on Emergency Medicine, Duke University Medical Center Michael C. Bond, MD FAAEM University of Maryland School of Medicine Mark Reiter, MD MBA FAAEM St. Luke’s Hospital, Bethlehem, PA Lisa Moreno-Walton, MD MSCR FAAEM Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center – New Orleans Mary Claire O’Brien, […]

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine, recognizing recent international reports of governmental interference with emergency care and at the request of our emergency physician colleagues in some of the affected countries, condemns any activities by governmental or non-governmental agencies that interfere with the normal operation of emergency services. Accordingly, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine […]

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 (hereinafter AAEM or the Academy) supports an increased level of scienter for EMTALA mandated care.1  Specifically, AAEM supports state laws that require plaintiffs to prove gross negligence or recklessness, by clear and convincing evidence, in cases alleging negligence for emergency department care, and for subsequent care to stabilize 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 […]