State of Emergency Medicine Report Card for Pennsylvania Highlights Good and Bad
The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in a national report card on the state of emergency medicine gave Pennsylvania a “B-” grade. Such a grade offers signals that Pennsylvania is doing some things right, but also says the Keystone State can do some things better.
On a positive note, thanks to one of the higher supplies of nurses, Pennsylvania earned an “A” for access to emergency care. Researchers say that when a state has a good supply of nurses, hospitals can more easily staff hospital beds. Pennsylvania also has a good supply of inpatient beds, says ACEP.
Also on a positive note, the report praises Pennsylvania for its public funding of health insurance for older adults and indigent. Pennsylvania has one of the lowest number of uninsured citizens in the country.
Unfortunately, within this good news is some bad news. The report says Pennsylvania has a below-average supply of emergency departments and ranked 20th in the country for the number of trauma centers.
Pennsylvania also received high marks, an “A-,” for quality of care and patient safety. It says Pennsylvania has a high number of emergency medicine doctors-in-training and residency training programs. Access to advanced life support ambulances and making online medical direction available to pre-hospital personnel received praise. And, in disaster preparedness, Pennsylvania’s efforts to train hospital personnel to handle disasters including biological and chemical terrorist attacks were applauded.
The report further compliments Pennsylvania for becoming a leader in patient safety, specifically mentioning the state’s Patient Safety Authority formed as a result of the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act of 2002.
However, again within this good news, there was a warning. Pennsylvania risks its excellent standing for quality care and patient safety because the state’s medical liability environment is causing newly trained residents to practice elsewhere.
And, this leads into the biggest factor negatively impacting Pennsylvania’s grade. The ACEP report card gives Pennsylvania a failing mark for its medical liability environment. According to ACEP, premium rates jumped significantly in recent years, and the report lamented the fact that Pennsylvania has not passed caps on non-economic damage awards.
Adding insult to injury, the ACEP report card gives Pennsylvania a low ranking of “C-” for public health and injury prevention, specifically citing seat belt law enforcement and lack of a helmet law for adult motorcycle riders.
This report card is the first of its kind and gives an honest appraisal of Pennsylvania’s emergency medicine status. The Pennsylvania Medical Society will encourage our lawmakers to heed the report and take into consideration the health and well-being of our patients as we work with them to strive for a higher grade for 2006.
Last Updated: 7/31/2008