Emergency Department

During the first year of the residency program, residents spend two months in the Emergency Department under the supervision of the full-time Emergency Department staff who have been trained both in family practice and emergency medicine.

Our residents develop triage skills for the rapid initial evaluation and/or treatment of emergency illnesses. They develop competency in the initial resuscitation and stabilization of the life-threatened patient; they function as a member of the resuscitation team; they develop skills for providing
efficient, competent, and appropriate evaluation, assessment, treatment and/or referral for people seen in the department; they develop an awareness of the stress that the emergency situation places on families, patients and staff; they develop an awareness of the implications and consequences of legal medicine in the practice of emergency medicine.

Formal didactic sessions, besides teaching and distribution of relevant journal articles, help residents learn in the Emergency Department. Residents develop skills by assuming the care and management of patients with varying levels of supervision as proficiency is achieved.

The Emergency Department at Hunterdon Medical Center is the focus of both pre-hospital and hospital emergency services in the community. An MICU (Mobile Intensive Care Unit) operates from the Emergency Department and staff physicians are involved in the advanced training of emergency medical technicians on area rescue squads throughout the community. First year residents are able to ride with the MICU to gain first hand experience of the operation of this life-saving service.

The Emergency Department is appropriately utilized by most of the community. Thus, while the volume of patients is not large (16,000 per year), the presenting problems are serious in a majority of patients. Thirteen percent of Emergency Department patients are admitted and the Emergency Department accounts for 22% of the hospital's admissions.