Emergency medicine department celebrates 10 years

BY MICHAEL KADRIE | SEPTEMBER 08, 2014 5:00 AM

The state of Iowas only emergency-medicine residency is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Residents in the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics program hone their skills in the stabilization, management, diagnosis, and disposition of individuals with acute illness and injury.

A large part of the programs mission is to help staff and support more rural areas, especially in Iowa.

Before [the emergency-medicine residency program], we were an academic program without an academic mission, said UIHC Emergency Medicine Chairman Andrew Nugent.

Emergency medicine is a relatively recent addition to the list of medical specialties officially recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. It arrived on the scene in 1979, and the first certification exam was conducted in 1980.

Residents help certified staff manage more than 60,000 patient visits a year, admitting approximately 15,000 patients annually.

About two-thirds of the graduates are either working in Iowa or the states immediately surrounding it, Nugent said.

The ambitious programs success was not always certain.

In the beginning, faculty and students had to deal with smaller work areas that made it difficult to see as many patients, he said.

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Emergency medicine department celebrates 10 years