EMERGENCY-MEDICINE - AN ANESTHESIOLOGISTS CONCEPT

Against the historical background of both the Belgian legislation and the tradition of the Leuven University Hospitals, the evolution of the ED as a centre for acute diagnosis and therapy is described (Figure 10). It involves medical care, nursing care and psychosocial care. The medical care is based on multidisciplinary input under emergency medicine's leadership. Within the medical care, critical care expertise is provided by emergency medicine. Emergency medicine is also responsible for the pre- and inhospital EMS systems, as well as for interhospital transport of critical patients by means of mobile intensive care units. Horizontal integration of the traditional vertical medical disciplines relies on management, protocol implementation and quality assurance provided by the staff of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Specific teaching tasks and research are the basis for emergency medicine as a discipline. Disaster medicine is complementary to emergency medicine, but relies on its daily EMS system for its medical care component. The concept of emergency medicine described is certainly not the only one possible, but can be considered to be the anaesthesiologist's concept, based on a tradition of collaboration and servitude. © 1992 Baillière Tindall.