A question that comes up when working in the ER is a simple thing that should be easy to answer. What should we call ourselves? An Emergency Room (ER) or an Emergency Department (ED). Of course, the follow up to this is, what difference does it make?
When the first emergency treatment areas of hospitals were initiated they were literally a single room with a few beds separated by curtains. Thus, they were initially called the emergency room. These were areas meant for only a few patients to come in to be quickly seen by their primary care doctors on their way to being admitted to the hospital. Patients rarely stared in the emergency room for more than an hour and there was no need for specific doctors or nurses to be assigned to the emergency room of the hospital. Times sure have changed over the past 60 years. The emergency area of the hospital is now the busiest part of most hospitals and is staffed 24/7 with a multitude of doctors, nurses and mid-level providers.
About 30 year’s ago there was a bit of an upheaval in the emergency world and the leaders of the various emergency physician societies decided that the best way to get more of a say in the running of the hospital would be to upgrade their Emergency Room to an Emergency Department. Afterall, a department sounds much important than a room. Along with this renaming came the attempt to lose the term ER and replace it with ED. Unfortunately, around this same time came the immensely popular television series named ER, with the irresistible George Clooney (among others) saving lives in the ER every week. Soon after, Viagra came on the market giving a whole new meaning to the term ED.
Personally, I refer to myself as an ER doctor when asked what I do for a living. People seem to understand what this means and they realize that the ER is more than a room now. Unfortunately, the naming controversy does go on, especially in the academic world, so don’t be surprised when you speak to someone who identifies the self as an ED doctor who has never prescribed Viagra.