On Wednesday, July 25, 2007, Rep. Waxman and Sen. Obama introduced legislation to help struggling emergency departments across the United States.

On June 22, 2007 , the Committee held an Oversight hearing on the nation's emergency care crisis.  This hearing followed a 2006 Institute of Medicine report that found the emergency care system is ill-prepared and overburdened.

The legislation introduced, H.R. 3173,  Improving Emergency Medical Care and Response Act of 2007, will provide support for research into emergency medicine and create a 5 year independently evaluated pilot program that will:

*Coordinate public health, safety, and emergency services;

*Facilitate timely access to emergency medical services;

*Establish a mechanism to ensure that the right patient gets to the right hospital at the right time;

*Track hospital resources, staffing and capacity in real time (e.g., statistics on bed capacity/ambulance diversion);

*Facilitate pre-hospital and inter-facility transports during disasters; and

*Promote emergency care research by coordinating efforts across federal agencies.