Emergency Doctors

* Re “Emergency Doctors Found Lacking Special Training,” Sept. 8:

The article states that many emergency departments across the country are staffed by residents and/or physicians without adequate training to care for the many types of medical problems which confront emergency physicians. It says that only half of the nation’s 25,000 jobs in emergency medicine are filled by doctors certified to provide emergency care.

This picture is painted with far too broad a brush stroke. Our emergency department is staffed exclusively by board-certified specialists, including moonlighters. The same can be said for many of the emergency departments in Southern California. In addition, a large percentage of those doctors lacking certification have extensive training and experience. They have been unable to take the emergency medicine boards because of technical, bureaucratic reasons. Attempts are currently being made to develop an alternative certification process.

I agree that certifying practices for emergency departments are antiquated. Those departments that use highly qualified personnel should be credited for this and the information provided to the public. However, it must be remembered that the underlying reason less qualified physicians are used in some emergency departments is that many other medical specialties are more highly compensated while emergency room work is often more difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous, as the shootings last year at L.A. County-USC Hospital showed.

STANLEY M. KALTER, MD

Medical Director, Emergency Department

Huntington Hospital, Pasadena