Emergency medicine. The rural challenge

Overcrowding, stress-related job burnout for emergency room physicians and other personnel, violence spilling over into the hospital with the surge in gang activity--it's the stuff of movies and, increasingly, real life in urban emergency departments, even in Minnesota. The trials and tribulations of providing emergency medical care in our metropolitan areas are well documented, both in professional journals and the conventional media. It's dramatic--lives hang in the balance--and it's important to everyone, since those who will one day require emergency medical care must entrust their well-being to this system. But it's only part of the story.