ACEP ED Accreditation Program Open for Business

ACEP’s new Emergency Department Accreditation Program (EDAP) is ready to start helping hospital emergency departments (EDs) earn this crucial stamp of approval from the College.

The ED is the front door to the hospital—where lives are saved, critical decisions are made, and patient outcomes are shaped. Up to 40 percent of hospital inpatients and 70 percent of  patients in the intensive care unit enter through the ED. Until now, there has been little transparency for patients when choosing the best emergency care. The EDAP requires hospitals to show they meet certain criteria such as physician/hospital staffing, physician contracting, quality, policies, and resources.

One hospital ED at the University of Alabama at Birmingham became the first to achieve ED Accreditation as part of the EDAP’s pilot program. The University of Maryland Medical Center, John Peter Smith Hospital in Texas, Novant Health Forsyth in North Carolina, and Holy Cross Medical Center in New Mexico are also serving as pilots and providing ACEP information on their EDs.

ACEP’s EDAP establishes the highest standards for emergency medicine, ensuring that accredited hospitals provide superior patient care, maintain optimal staffing, and promote a safer, more efficient work environment. EDAP accreditation isn’t just a certification. It’s a statement that your hospital prioritizes the best in emergency care. Read more about the criteria and process.

ACEP E-QUAL Honor Roll Recognizes Excellence in Substance Use Disorder, VTE, Stroke Care

ACEP is pleased to recognize the 78 emergency departments named to the Emergency Quality Network (E-QUAL) Honor Roll for notable achievement in emergency care for stroke, venous thromboembolism (VTE), or opioid and alcohol use disorder treatment.

“Emergency physicians are at the center of solutions to many of the nation’s most pressing health care challenges,” said ACEP President Alison J. Haddock, MD, FACEP. “Whether initiating timely and innovative stroke treatment or making sure that patients get the best care available to them for substance use disorders, these leaders in emergency care are advancing emergency care and saving lives.”

E-QUAL Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorder Honor Roll awardees demonstrate excellence in metrics that include treatment prescribed at discharge, treatment administered in the emergency department, and take-home naloxone offered or prescribed. Awardees for stroke care are recognized for arrival to computed tomography scan time for patients with hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke, door-to-needle time for ischemic stroke, and proportion of patients with their last two systolic blood pressures under 180. Awardees for VTE care are recognized for their performance in documentation of severity or risk, completion of risk stratification elements, treatment of high-risk VTE patients, and discharge of low-risk VTE patients.