A survey of Washington state freestanding emergency centers

A survey was conducted of the known FECs in the state of Washington in 1982 to assess facility organization and staffing patterns, equipment available, types of services offered, overall morbidity, and community acceptance. The 15 facilities responding saw an average of 25.6 patients in a 12.5-hour day, seven days per week. None of the facilities encouraged or accepted critical ambulance cases, and only one accepted non-critical transport patients. Essentially all have ACLS-trained physicians and resuscitation equipment, but only 0.003% of the total patient census required this intervention. A majority of the facilities utilized the word "emergency" in their title, but none indicated that this caused confusion for their patients. By self-assessment, public acceptance has been overwhelmingly positive, while primary care and hospital emergency physicians have been cool to the concept.