Interning with the Hennepin County Medical Center Emergency Department

Abstract

Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) is a level-one trauma center that serves a wide range of patients primarily from Minnesota’s metropolitan area. One of the busiest parts of the hospital is the Emergency Department (ED) which was updated in 1999 so that it now includes 45 examining rooms and a four bay Stabilization Room which sees some of the hospital’s most severe cases. In 2010, there were over 96,000 emergency services visits. Dr. James Miner, the primary investigator for the HCMC ED Research Associate Program, takes advantage of HCMC’s large patient flow by investigating a variety of clinical topics with the goals of improving patient outcomes and exposing research associates (RA’s) to the daily innovation of emergency medical practice. Currently, the Emergency Medline research being conducted through the RA program focuses on tissue perfusion monitoring, airway management, pain management, procedural sedation, and brain injury. As interns in the ED, the RA’s primary responsibilities are to screen for potential study candidates, consent patients forstudies, and collect research data. The RA program hosted by the HCMC Emergency Department provides Research Associates with excellent clinical research experience and the data collected leads to improving the practice of emergency medicine.