EDAP has been more than a year in the making, and launch is expected around Spring 2025.

“It’s a pretty daunting task when you think about it,” says Dr. Gausche-Hill. “That’s because emergency departments include a number of emergency clinicians led by emergency physicians.” We want to make the environment not only safe for our patients but also for all our frontline workers—emergency physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, everybody. It has taken a lot of collaboration to reach this point.”

The core of the EDAP is to establish a set of criteria EDs must meet to achieve accreditation.

The criteria will encompass staffing levels, quality improvement plans, and transfer policies. This comprehensive approach ensures that EDs are not only prepared to provide immediate care but also equipped to manage more complex cases through effective transfer protocols.

One of the significant advantages of EDAP is its potential to enhance transparency. Patients often face uncertainty about the qualifications of the medical staff treating them. In keeping with ACEP’s official stance in support of physician-led teams, part of EDAP criteria will include information about the hospital’s inclusion of board-certified emergency physicians.

“We work collaboratively with the entire emergency medicine team to leverage training and resources to efficiently, rapidly and comprehensively take care of patients within an emergency department setting,” says Dr. Guasche-Hill. “Who better than emergency physicians to lead that? You want to know when you need care that there’s somebody trained and ready for whatever is presented. But what this program does is ensure that the hospital is also committed to ongoing training and improvement.”

Four levels of ED Accreditation will be available—Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Rural. Hospitals must meet standards based on staffing, physician contracting, quality, policies and resources. These domains are driven by ACEP policies.

ACEP has launched its pilot phase of the program. Five hospitals have enrolled as pilot sites and have agreed to provide criteria and process feedback to the ED Accreditation Board of Governors. This feedback will be instrumental towards a successful nationwide program launch, says Dr. Gausche-Hill.

Pilot participants include:

• The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Alabama, teaching hospital
• University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland, teaching hospital
• John Peter Smith Hospital (JPS), Texas, Safety Net hospital
• Holy Cross Medical Center, New Mexico, Critical Access hospital
• Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center

One of the distinguishing features of the EDAP is its commitment to being responsive.