The groups called on Anthem to reverse course and work toward solutions that maintain access and support clinicians’ ability to deliver uninterrupted patient care.

ACEP Calls for Systemic Change After New York Times Highlights ED Strain

A recent New York Times article told the story of a family’s devastating loss and shined a light on resource and staffing constraints, capacity challenges, and other systemic factors that complicate emergency care.

In a letter to the editor, ACEP President Dr. L. Anthony Cirillo offered an expanded perspective from the frontlines and called for critical policy fixes. Dr. Cirillo pointed to challenges like boarding and staffing gaps, urging policymakers to address these structural issues that jeopardize timely and high-quality patient care in the emergency department.

ACEP Council Chooses Dr. Ryan Stanton as President-Elect

Dr. Stanton

At the ACEP Council Meeting in Salt Lake City in September, Kentucky emergency physician Ryan Stanton, MD, FACEP, was named ACEP President-Elect. Dr. Stanton will take the reins as 2026-27 ACEP President when the Council meets in October 2026 in Chicago. Dr. Stanton is president of Central Emergency Physicians in Kentucky and EMS medical director for Lexington-Fayette Urban County. He serves as medical director for the AMR/NASCAR safety team and other EMS agencies. Dr. Stanton is a chief medical contributor for Fox 56 News and creator/host of the ACEP Frontline podcast. He is a past president of the Kentucky chapter of ACEP. Dr. Stanton has a medical degree from James H. Quillen College of Medicine and completed his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Kentucky.

JACEP Open Study Reveals Longer ED Stays Despite Quicker Placement

A new study published in JACEP Open challenges assumptions about hallway medicine in crowded emergency departments.

Dr. Dilip

The research, led by emergency physician Monisha Dilip, MD, MBA, analyzed more than 340,000 patient visits across two hospitals and found that although patients placed in hallway treatment spaces are moved into beds more quickly, their overall length of stay in the ED is longer.

The study, “Fast for Real or Just a Feel? Reassessing Hallway Treatment Spaces and Their Impact on Emergency Department Operations,” examined data from July 2017 to February 2020. It found that discharged patients placed in hallways were brought to beds nearly 18 minutes faster than those in rooms.

But their total ED stay was, on average, 123 minutes longer. Admitted patients saw only a modest improvement of about eight minutes in door-to-bed time, with no meaningful difference in total throughput.