NATIONAL EMERGENCY MEDICINE SOCIETY CERTIFIES U.VA. HEALTH SYSTEM ER AS A LEVEL ONE CENTER |
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The Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System has been awarded the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Level One Emergency Center categorization. This designation places the department in the highest category possible for patient care, overall quality and disaster preparedness. The U.Va. Health System emergency medicine department is the second in the country to receive the SAEM Category I certification, which lasts for five years. Through level one emergency center categorization, SAEM recognizes institutions that provide comprehensive emergency care and serve as regional resources for education and research. Also, SAEM hospital surveyors recommend areas for improvement. “We’re happy to know that we are level one and we are doing things right. We also appreciate the recommendations so that we know how and where to do things better,” said Dr. Marcus Martin, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at U.Va. and past president of SAEM. “ While our recent renovations in the ED helped our scores, one of the recommendations made was for more patient care space which we are currently addressing.” This designation ultimately helps to improve other emergency medicine departments as well. “Our quality feeds into other institutions because U.Va. trains future emergency physicians, paramedics and emergency medical technicians. These medical professionals then go out and work in other health systems,” said Martin. The standards SAEM uses to evaluate potential level one emergency centers include quality of physicians and nurses, quality of education, patient flow, cleanliness and function. Emergency departments qualify for level one designation if they meet all critical criteria in the standards. This designation is different from the statewide level one trauma center status, which the medical center received from the Virginia Department of Health. For more information, call the Media Relations office at (434) 924-5679. April 8, 2003 |