Emergency department overcrowding: Does the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians have a role?

President's Letter

CJEM 2000;2(2):78

The annual emergency department (ED) overcrowding crisis has begun again, and this year there is tremendous media hype. In fact, over the last few months real emergency physicians have received more attention than the stars of ER!

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Strategic Plan states clearly that CAEP should play an advocacy role and influence public policy as it relates to the provision of emergency care. Recent media attention has given us a window of opportunity to engage both the federal and provincial governments in a dialogue on health care reform. ED overcrowding is a symptom of system failure, and the CAEP Board intends to take a leadership role and do what we can to relieve the pressure now being borne by Canadian emergency departments.

The CAEP Board has a number of initiatives to address this serious problem. To make sensible decisions, we require reliable data on ED waiting times. The Canadian Emergency De-partment Triage and Acuity Scale¹ will help us gather meaningful standardized data, and its widespread adoption is an important development of which we can be proud. In addition, CAEP is actively promoting a national forum at which federal and provincial government representatives can meet ED care providers to discuss problems and develop solutions. We know that many of the solutions lie beyond the sphere of emergency medicine and include primary care reform, improved home care, and increased long term care capacity to ease the bed pressure on acute care institutions. In all of these areas, CAEP will strive to be a leader. At the same time, our expanded advocacy role will not detract from our successful education and research initiatives; rather, it reflects the maturity of our organization and speciality.

The CAEP Board (board@caep.ca) welcomes your feedback as we explore these new horizons.

We hope to see many of you in Saint John, NB, for our annual meeting, June 10 to 14, 2000.

Reference

1. Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. Canadian Emergency De-partment Triage and Acuity Scale Im-plementation Guidelines. CJEM 1999; 1(3 Suppl).