A physician experienced in the management of acute medical problems could assess and treat these patients in the most appropriate fashion for the first 48 hours of their admission, aiming either for an early discharge with appropriate outpatient follow-up or transfer to a specialist ward.
[4] However, Robert Wachter has stated that acute medical units "have been associated with lower inpatient mortality, improved patient and staff satisfaction, reduced hospital stays, and increased throughput.
[1][3] This is now a very common approach to suspected deep vein thrombosis,[6] but the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has identified a number of other conditions that can be managed in an ambulatory emergency care setting.
[7] In 2009, the General Medical Council approved acute medicine as a distinct specialty, allowing doctors to specialise in it in order to receive their Certificate of Completion of Training.
[10] In the Netherlands, the Dutch Acute Medicine (DAM) society was formed in 2012 and held its first Congress on 28 September 2012 in the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.