Growing Crisis in Patient Access to Emergency Surgical Care

The College of Surgeons has released a report entitled "The Growing Crisis in Patient Access to Emergency Surgical Care" which details the problems associated with the shortage of surgeons serving on ED call panels and the reasons for those shortages. The report advocates for some specific federal and state action to address the crisis. Some of the information contained in the report may be helpful in further supporting chapter efforts to educate policymakers and the public about the severity of the on-call specialist shortages and the need to address this problem. The report is available at http://www.facs.org/ahp/emergcarecrisis.pdf