The first step toward developing a healthy ED is to develop a vision of the way emergency medicine should be practiced. The second is to analyze the way it is practiced within a physician group or department. The third is to generate a plan for transitioning from the way it is to the way it ought to be.
A robust department begins with principled physician and nursing leadership.
- Laura Pimentel, The Healthy Emergency Department, in Croskerry P, Cosby KS, Schenkel SM, Wears RL (editors), Patient Safety in Emergency Medicine, Wolters Kluwer, Philadelphia, PA, 2009; 41-44.
A mentor, a colleague, a leader, and a friend, Dr. Laura Pimentel died on June 23, 2026. She led the Emergency Departments at Bon Secours (1993-94), Mercy Medical Center (1995-2007), and Upper Chesapeake Medical Center (2007-08). She was Vice President and then CEO of the Maryland Emergency Medicine Network and, from 2011-2013, President of Maryland ACEP. She will be greatly missed. Her legacy of caring and clarity live on.