Emergency center categorization standards

The SAEM EC Categorization Task Force was developed in response to the 1994 Macy Foundation's recommendation that emergency medicine (EM) organization s "should revise the classification of emergency departments... to reflect the level of care available in emergency departments,and indicate whether o r not facilities are adequate and whether appropriately qualified and crede ntialed emergency physicians are available 24 hours a day." By holding Leve l 1 emergency centers (ECs) to objective standards based on the quality of care delivered as well as administrative, research, and educational efforts , SAEM hopes to improve patient care. The SAEM EC Categorization Task Force is now beginning the process of reviewing ECs that provide comprehensive e mergency care and serve as regional resources for education, research, and administration in EM. This standards document describes relative and critic al criteria to be met in order to receive designation as a Level 1 emergenc y center. Such centers must meet all critical criteria, and be in sufficien t compliance with most or all relative criteria, in order to achieve this d esignation. This process is entirely voluntary. Any EC is eligible for revi ew. Any institution can initiate the review process by applying. Applicatio n materials and further information, including the policies and procedures of the SAEM EC Categorization Task Force, are available from SAEM.