Time makes a difference to everyone, everywhere: The need for effective regionalization of emergency and critical care

摘要

Emergency and critical care plays a unique role by dealing with life-threatening disease processes across broad populations and geographies. Evidenced-based improvements in emergency care have been shown to improve immediate morbidity and mortality, as well as to affect long-term outcomes in a variety of time-sensitive conditions, including major trauma, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), and stroke. The effect of these lifesaving interventions depends not only on rapid diagnosis by well-trained out-of-hospital providers and emergency clinicians but also on the availability of timely interventions, appropriate care delivery systems, and specialized critical care resources.