The Future of the Hospital Emergency Department

Are crowded emergency rooms a problem or an opportunity? As convenience stores for American health care, will they render the concept of a "medical home" obsolete? What are the issues impacting emergency rooms now and into the future? What can we do in Arizona to address them? These questions and many more were the focus of a thought-provoking HealthEdge forum on March 30, 2006.

Featured speaker Leon Haley Jr., M.D. reflected on leading the only Level I Trauma Center serving Atlanta and North Georgia. He then joined three panelists and moderator Roger Hughes for an engrossing and revealing audience-panel dialogue. The group tackled issues of overcrowding, the relationship between hospitals' in-patient and emergency room operations, the role of primary care and innovations that are in practice today for what one participant called "the only business in the world where we try to get rid of business."

The event:

Streaming full-program audio (approximately 90 min.)
- Real Player format*
- Windows Media Player format**
Featured Speaker Information
Panelist Information

* Download the free Real Player for Windows here; for Mac here.
** Choose your free Windows Media Player here.