Chairman Murphy, Ranking Member DeGette and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on your hearing focusing on the Ebola outbreak and efforts by the U.S. Government and our health care system to identify, treat, and protect the public health from this infectious disease.
The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is the specialty society of board certified emergency physicians, representing 8,000 members across the country. Whether it is an athlete suffering from a broken bone, an infant struggling to breathe, a victim struggling to survive a gunshot wound, or a patient dealing with debilitating symptoms from an infectious disease, our emergency physicians serve on the front lines everyday combating life threating conditions. Our emergency physicians, nurses, and medical support teams provide this type of care in often overcrowded, underfunded, and overburdened systems. A typical emergency department (ED) could see 100 patients a day while a more populated one could see 300. According to the CDC, in 2010 the number of visits to an ED was 129.8 million. This number continues to increase. Despite the well-intended efforts of the Affordable Care Act to direct non-critical and non-emergency patients to primary care providers, Americans frequently still choose EDs as their first option for care. EDs are, in particular, a first point of care for many immigrants and travelers who seek treatment in the United States.
Like many Americans, we are saddened by the toll Ebola has taken on the lives of many in West Africa and other countries and now the United States. We share in the concern for our fellow caregivers who appear to have contracted the disease from their efforts to save a now deceased patient. We are proud of our physician colleagues who are battling against Ebola in West Africa under challenging conditions in an effort to save lives and prevent further infections. Unfortunately, this disease poses significant challenges not only to the global health system but to our health system as evidenced recently in Texas, Georgia, and Nebraska.
