The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is asking President Joe Biden for help in fixing hospital emergency departments.
In a letter Monday addressed to the president, ACEP is asking for federal assistance as hospital EDs “have been brought to a breaking point” by the COVID-19 pandemic, short staffing and burnout.
ACEP and its affiliated organizations are calling on the Biden Administration to convene a summit of stakeholders “to identify immediate and long-term solutions to this urgent problem.”
This morning, we sounded the alarm on the patient boarding crisis that has brought ERs across our country to a breaking point. In our joint letter to @POTUS, we shared real-life stories showing the threat to our health care safety net. [1/4]
Full letter: https://t.co/p1kydtphUJ pic.twitter.com/jHywn86uwq— Emergency Physicians (@EmergencyDocs) November 7, 2022
“Boarding has become its own public health emergency,” the letter states. “Our nation’s safety net is on the verge of breaking beyond repair; EDs are gridlocked and overwhelmed with patients waiting – waiting to be seen; waiting for admission to an inpatient bed in the hospital; waiting to be transferred to psychiatric, skilled nursing, or other specialized facilities; or, waiting simply to return to their nursing home.
“And this breaking point is entirely outside the control of the highly skilled emergency physicians, nurses, and other ED staff doing their best to keep everyone attended to and alive.”
The nine-page letter cites a variety of factors for long boarding times, including the COVID-19 pandemic, short staffing at hospitals and burnout.
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