In the emergency department (ED), Cleveland Clinic teams deliver rapid, high-stakes care with precision and purpose, stabilizing critically ill patients and coordinating treatment in real time. | Photo: Marty Carrick
By the Numbers
158Mestimated ED visits nationwide in 2024
187 minutesMedian total length of stay in ED for all patients
76%ED visits coded as high-acuity (requiring complex and/or urgent care)
2.6%patients left before treatment was complete
Sources: Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance 2024 Data Survey; Centers For Disease Control and Prevention; National Emergency Department Inventory
For many, emergency medicine is the first point of contact with Cleveland Clinic’s promise to care for every patient, every time — no matter who they are or when they show up. In the emergency department, they never close. They never turn people away.
Patients arrive with no diagnosis, no referral, no plan. A stroke. A seizure. A child with a fever that won’t break. An older adult who is having chest pain. No matter where they come from, they land here, where caregivers become detectives and then some.
Today’s emergency care looks different than it did even five years ago. Emergency teams are solving problems in real time, in nontraditional spaces, under unprecedented pressure. They’re performing virtual triage, advocating for victims of violence, rethinking paradigms and bringing ICU-level care to patients who might be hundreds of miles away.
In the following pages, you’ll meet some of the visionaries who are leading this transformation — and redefining what it means to deliver emergency care.
