About Us

The Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics provides emergency medicine care and treatment for patients of all ages in an ambulatory setting. The Emergency Treatment Center is designed and organized to provide emergency medical services and acute urgent unscheduled episodic services.

Patient care includes:

• Emergency cardiac care
• Laceration and wound repair
• Fracture reductions and splinting
• Multi-systems trauma resuscitation
• Neurological evaluation and stabilization
• Gynecological evaluation and treatment
• Procedural sedation
• Blood transfusion
• General medical evaluation, stabilization and treatment

Assessment methods include:

• History and physical examination
• Urinalysis
• Blood analysis
• Lumbar puncture
• Ultrasound
• Computerized tomography
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Angiography
• Radiography
• Pulmonary function testing

Staff

The UI Emergency Treatment Center (ETC) is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by faculty physicians, fellowship-level physicians, physician assistants, and nurses.

Staffing Guidelines

One faculty staff physician and/or Fellowship level physician is on duty at all times, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A staffing schedule is published monthly to ensure adequate coverage. A staffing schedule is also developed for physician assistant coverage during peak demand periods with one or two PA staff on duty throughout the day and evening hours. In addition, one or two resident physicians from various clinical departments rotate through the Emergency Treatment Center each month for training purposes.

Standards of Excellence

A medical care staff must have appropriate state licensure to be able to practice medicine.

All faculty staff physicians are board certified or board eligible by the American College of Emergency Physicians and/or a related specialty area such as family medicine or internal medicine. All fellowship level physicians have completed a residency-training program.

Residents are supervised by the ETC-attending physician during their training rotation. With few exceptions, each patient seen by a resident is also seen by a staff physician. There is always at least one staff physician supervising and available to the residents.

Our physician assistants are graduates of an accredited training program and be board certified by the National Commission on Accreditation of Physician Assistants, Inc. Each physician assistant has a written scope of care and an identified supervising physician assigned to review their medical activity and mid-level provider patient notes.

All staff members participate in continuing education activities appropriate to their licensure and practice area.

Standards for Improvement

Stephen Scheckel, MD, staff physician and assistant director, and Barbara Schuessler, RN, nurse manager, oversee quality improvement efforts for the Emergency Treatment Center. Data are presented to the faculty each quarter during a monthly faculty meeting. Problems and issues requiring immediate attention are promptly addressed with the particular individuals involved utilizing meetings, written correspondence and/or e-mail.

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Clinical Outcomes, Assessment and Research Program (CORM) sends data to the program based on an annual patient survey. In addition, performance feedback is solicited from all departments. The ETC management team, faculty, and staff collaborate to identify trends and opportunities for improvement review issues. Typical issues include throughput time delays, level of charges, staff attitude, pain management, response from clinical consultants and transition of care from EMS.