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Emergency department intensive care units in a country with a fledgling specialty in emergency medicine as in Italy
  1. Daniele Orso1,
  2. Nicola Guglielmo2,
  3. Francesco Cugini3
  1. 1 Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Udine University Health Integrated Agency, Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
  2. 2 Department of Emergency Medicine, ASUFC Community Hospital of Latisana, Latisana (UD), Italy
  3. 3 Department of Emergency Medicine, ASUFC Community Hospital of San Daniele del Friuli, San Daniele del Friuli (UD), Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Daniele Orso, Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Udine University Health Integrated Agency, Udine 33100, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy; sd7782.do{at}gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2021-211825

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    Dear Editor,

    Leibner et al described that in the USA, some intensive care units (ICUs) were set up within the emergency department (ED) and managed by emergency physicians (ED-ICU).1 The implementation of the ED-ICU was associated with improved 30-day survival and reduced inpatient ICU admission.2 Furthermore, some diseases (eg, ketoacidosis) are life-threatening but respond dramatically to rapid intervention and resolve quickly.3

    In northeastern Italy, near Udine, there are at least four structures in rural or suburban hospitals that have been performing the function of ED-ICUs for at least 20 years (figure 1). These ‘emergency areas’ (so-called ‘Area di Emergenza’ (ADE)) meet the criteria of the ED-ICU as described …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @Orso_dan

    • Contributors All authors contributed equally to both the conception and the writing of the document.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.