Emergency department Emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident & emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of patients who present without prior appointment; either by their own means or by that of an ambulance. The emergency department is usually found in a hospital or other primary care center. Due to the unplanned nature of patient attendance, the department must provide initial treatment for a broad spectrum of illnesses and injuries, some of which may be life-threatening and require immediate attention.
Inova Alexandria Hospital pivotal role in creating the modern medical specialty of emergency medicine. Before this time, hospital emergency departments (EDs) (also called emergency rooms (ERs)) were generally staffed by physicians on staff at the hospital on a rotating basis, among them family physicians, general surgeons, internists, and a variety of other specialists. In many smaller emergency departments, nurses would triage patients and physicians would be called in based on the type of injury or illness. In 1961, an Alexandria Hospital general practice physician, Dr. James Mills, recognized that visits to the hospital's emergency department had rapidly increased while staffing had failed to