Delivery of excellent emergency medical care is our highest priority and the impetus for all of the other activities that we undertake. Carolinas Medical Center serves Mecklenburg County and 16 surrounding counties in North and South Carolina. It is the flagship of a network that includes acute care facilities, sub acute facilities, and clinics in North and South Carolina. The Emergency Department at Carolinas Medical Center manages over 114,000 patients each year or about 300-320 patients per day.

The Medical Center has been designated as the Level 1 regional trauma center and annually cares for approximately 2,200 trauma resuscitation patients. Carolinas Medical Center is also the referral hospital for the Carolinas Heart Emergency Network, which results in the transfer of approximately 1,000 cardiac patients per year to our emergency department and institution.

The emergency department features an unusually diverse mix of patient care opportunities including 30% medical, 27% surgical / traumatic, 25% pediatric, 15% obstetrical-gynecological, and 3% psychiatric and toxicological illness. The Emergency Department is divided into four areas: Major Treatment, Diagnostic Center, Fast Track, and 12-bed Children's ED. Patients are triaged to one of these four areas based on the acuity of illness. Two to four board certified emergency medicine faculty are present in the open areas 24 hours a day. Within the department are a satellite radiology suite, HBO chamber, and an eight-bed 24 hour observation unit. Four of these beds are equipped with bedside arrhythmia and continuous ST segment trend analysis and constitute the Emergency Department's Chest Pain Evaluation Center (CPEC). Care areas are equipped with digital x-ray, computerized labs and transcriptions, point-of-care testing, and wireless networking.

The new Children's Emergency Department is a cornerstone to the launching of a new 234-bed Children's Hospital which is scheduled to be completed at our site in 2007. It is the first ED in the region open 24 hours a day and dedicated to the care of children in a family-centered environment.

In 2004 Carolinas Medical Center achieved Chest Pain Center accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers, as well as Primary Stroke Certification through JCAHO.