U.S. Emergency Care System Scores a D+, According to Physician Group

​The American College of Emergency Physicians rated the environment of emergency care in the U.S. as a D+ in its new report card, a downgrade since the 2009 report card, when the overall grade was a C-. The report card evaluates the emergency care environment of each state and whether government policies support emergency care in the following five categories, which contain 136 measures: access to emergency care, quality and patient safety, medical liability, public health and injury prevention, and disaster preparedness. Access to emergency care continued to fare the worst in the evaluation, remaining at a grade of D- because patient need for emergency care exceeds the number of available emergency departments (EDs). Since the 2009 report card, worse grades were given for the quality and patient safety (C+ to C) and disaster preparedness (C+ to C-) categories.