Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation Hosting Summit on Patient Safety

The Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation (EMPSF)  announced that they will be hosting a summit on patient safety in emergency care in Las Vegas, NV, on May 5-6, 2011. The meeting, Patient Safety in Emergency Care: Excellence in Outcomes, (Twitter hashtag #empsfmtg1) will bring together key emergency medicine and patient safety stakeholders and thought leaders from across North America. The two day summit will be a forum for sharing insights on solving the patient safety challenges associated with providing emergency care in the pre-hospital and emergency department (ED) settings. Attendees will include leadership from key organizations, emergency medicine providers, nursing, hospital administrators, emergency medical services (EMS), pharmacy, risk management and patient safety officers and researchers.

"We are receiving a tremendous response to the summit," said Dianne Vass, executive director of EMPSF. "It is critical for those whose mission is to provide, deliver and support the continuum of emergency care to have a forum for sharing new insights, best practices and lessons learned with fellow leaders. As the only organization whose sole focus is dedicated to the advancement of patient safety knowledge in emergency medicine, EMPSF is pleased to host this first annual meeting of emergency and patient safety leaders."

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there were over 116.8 million visits to hospital emergency rooms in the United States in 2007. This is an increase of 23% over 1997.  About 18 million ED patient visits arrived by ambulance and over 14.6 million visits resulted in the patient being admitted to the same hospital. With an aging population and a large uninsured/underinsured population, hospitals expect to see future demand for emergency services continue to grow.

The EMPSF 1st Annual Patient Safety Summit will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, on May 5-6, 2011. Those interested in attending, sponsoring and exhibiting are encouraged to contact EMPSF for more information.

About EMPSF

The Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation (EMPSF) is a national, 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization that was formed in 2003 to identify and respond to the challenges of providing safe, quality health care in the practice of Emergency Medicine. For more information, call (888) 294-4624, visit www.empsf.org, www.twitter.com/empsf and Facebook.