Articles: emergency-services.
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Properly staffed and equipped EDs are essential to a modern system of health care. In a relatively brief period, emergency medicine has emerged as a major medical specialty. ⋯ If sufficient support for the specialty can be secured, the future of emergency medicine is bright. If not, the nature of emergency care in the United States will be profoundly changed for years to come.
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Traditionally, cost effectiveness has been overlooked in emergency departments because of a mandate to provide emergency care in every community regardless of expense. However, in the current era of managed care, reduced reimbursement, and cost controls, emergency departments are being examined more carefully to determine whether their costs can be contained or even whether they can become profit centers. Detailed billing, cost accounting, enhanced communication among emergency departments within a community, and linking of suburban and inner-city emergency departments are several means by which emergency departments can control costs and raise revenues.