Responding to Crisis
Emergency Medicine is at a tipping point. Physicians are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout, and patient boarding is at critical levels throughout the United States. Stress levels are high and hours are long. We need to respond.
Supporting Those Who Care for Us
The vast majority of Americans have utilized Emergency medical services at some point in our lives. Most of us take for granted that we can rely on these services when faced with a sudden health condition or accident.
However, the specialty of emergency medicine is at a tipping point. Physicians are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout, patient boarding is at critical levels throughout the country, all ED staff are increasingly at risk of violence in the workplace, physicians and particularly female physicians are leaving the profession at alarmingly young ages, and students have reduced their interested in pursuing emergency medicine as a career and in some cases choosing not to pursue medicine at all.
At EMcentric and the EMcentric Foundation, our joint mission is to address the increasing mental health and wellness issues threatening the stability of the Emergency Medicine community. By developing and delivering high-quality training programs and resources at no-cost or low-cost, we are striving to make wellness service accessible and convenient for all Emergency Medicine professionals.
Recent data show that Medical students have a reduced interest in pursuing emergency medicine as a career, and physicians are leaving the profession at alarming rates yet hospitals and other physician employers struggle to provide adequate resources for physician wellness and mental health support.
These pressures are increasing at a time when emergency medicine is increasingly vital as a safety net due to increasing losses of primary care services, threats from COVID and other high-risk scenarios, and the increasing burden of psychiatric patients warehoused in EDs.
No single solution exists to manage all of the threats to emergency medicine. But increasingly physician wellness is seen as a vital focus of attention for the EM workforce. However, hospitals and other physician employers struggle to provide adequate resources for physician wellness among other competing pressures. While individuals and groups seek individualized wellness and coaching services from well-respected physician-led programs, many others, along with other ED staff have very limited access to any of these resources and may just leave their professions, increasing the pressures on their colleagues left to care for patients.
As with many areas of medicine prevention is a solid strategy for providing a cost-effective comprehensive solution to the emergency physician wellness problem, with also providing “treatment” for the existing workforce, to include affiliated staff on whom EDs depend. The affected population includes 7,000 EM residents across 265 US residency programs, and 65,000 overall emergency physicians, with thousands more nursing and other staff who could benefit from hospital programs. Residents represent the future of our emergency care system, but do not have the financial resources available to obtain what could be critical resources to set them up for success in their chosen career. Existing ED staff at all levels of experience can benefit from evidence-based programs and resources designed to promote wellness on an ongoing basis.
Tilman Jolly, MD, FACEP
Dr. Til Jolly is the Founder and CEO of EMcentric and the EMcentric Foundation. He is an experienced board-certified emergency physician who remains active in bedside practice. He provides senior medical leadership, operational guidance and strategic growth recommendations for government and private sector organizations.
Til and his key partners work actively with early-stage telemedicine companies, medtech and medical device companies and others as they seek US placement and growth, and other organizations seeking senior medical leadership as the grow within increasingly challenging markets.
The EMcentric Foundation will address these populations by providing:
- Low and no-cost wellness and other targeted programs designed to identify and prevent sources of burnout
- Scalable training programs, courses, tools, and resources to manage personal and professional stresses in a remarkably difficult workplace
- Research and development to create content and design new resources at scale
- A strategic plan and framework for growth within a specialty critical to the US healthcare system
Join us in our mission!
Your support or donation will help us address this growing mental health crisis. By providing physicians with professional wellness services and programs, we will ensure the continued availability of quality emergency care—for all of us.
The EMcentric Foundation is a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) organization. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.