What are the challenges of providing emergency care in health care systems?
The increasing demands for emergent and primary care will strain the capacity of many EDs to provide even basic emergency care to acutely ill patients. Many physicians are reluctant to discuss issues related to a patient's weight, and patients are not always receptive to the discussion. Aside from education on individual risk factors and overall healthy lifestyle promotion, the ED can serve as an effective location to educate patients about stroke signs and symptoms and the need to seek immediate medical attention. However, no study has investigated the use of the ED as a site for nutritional and dietary counseling, and few emergency physicians actually practice routine screening and counseling of emergency patients, which highlights the need for reinforcement of ED health promotion strategies.