Emergency Medicine: a specialty that deserves “re-branding,” because it enables large financial savings!

Emergency departments are costly to maintain. They remain open every hour of the year to provide care for those who need it, when they need it. Therefore, emergency departments are a crucial resource for any modern society, and no sensible person would want to close them, despite their cost. However, the view held by many, that the care provided in an emergency department is excessively costly, is just plain wrong. When our doctors’ and our specialty’s performance is viewed objectively, it becomes clear that emergency physicians have become crucial agents of cost savings. Therefore, EPs have earned the right to proudly “re-brand” themselves not as high-cost care providers, but as indispensable, money-savers in any nation’s health care enterprise. If you don’t believe that, continue reading this commentary.