Show Notes
In this episode of ACEP Frontline, we sit down with Dr. Aaron Kuzel from the University of Louisville to discuss one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare today, protecting and expanding access to emergency care in rural America. From hospital closures and workforce shortages to increasing healthcare deserts across the country, rural communities continue to face growing barriers to timely emergency treatment. Dr. Kuzel shares his perspective on the critical role emergency physicians play in ensuring high-quality, lifesaving care regardless of a patient’s ZIP code. The conversation explores why physician-led emergency care matters, the unique challenges facing smaller and rural emergency departments, and how advocacy at the state and national level is essential to preserving access for vulnerable populations. We also dive into the role of organized emergency medicine through American College of Emergency Physicians and how advocacy efforts are shaping policies focused on patient safety, workforce development, reimbursement, and sustainable rural healthcare systems. Whether discussing boarding, transfer delays, or maintaining specialty access in underserved regions, this episode highlights why emergency medicine remains the healthcare safety net for communities large and small. It’s a timely and important conversation about the future of emergency care, and the ongoing fight to ensure every patient has access to physician-led emergency medicine when they need it most.
More from ACEP Frontline
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In this episode of ACEP Frontline, Dr. Ryan Stanton is joined by Dr. Sean Ochsenbein to reflect on the Hurricane Helene flooding that inundated Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, forcing a rooftop evacuation of patients and staff. He shares the leadership, disaster response, and emergency management lessons learned during the unprecedented flood, detailing how healthcare teams, first responders, and military rescue crews worked together to safely evacuate everyone from the hospital amid rapidly rising floodwaters.
In this Frontline Weekend Playlist episode, hear Dr. Andrew French, Vice President and Physician Executive for Quality, Safety, and Clinical Operations at Centura Health, present "Critical Connections, Leadership in Emergency Medicine" from the Fourth Annual Leadership Symposium and EM: High Risk, Do Not Miss Conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Dr. French reframes leadership as influence rather than title or authority, and argues that emergency medicine, with its daily demands for adaptability, quick decision making, and managing a huge range of perspectives under pressure, is the ideal training ground for building that skill. He walks through a practical framework for developing leadership on shift, starting with a simple personal leadership statement and building toward leading teams and larger systems, and makes the case that emergency physicians are uniquely positioned to lead change across the broader healthcare system. The throughline is that leadership is not acquired knowledge but a skill built through repeated practice, and the emergency department is the best laboratory available for building it.