The Chi Mei Emergency Department

Since 1992, full-time attending physicians have provided frontline emergency medical care in the Emergency Department, helping establish the practice of having dedicated attending physicians providing emergency care in emergency departments across Taiwan.

The Department of Emergency Medicine currently has 43 full-time attending physicians and manages approximately 300 emergency patient visits per day, accounting for approximately one-quarter of the total emergency department volume in the Tainan area. It is one of the largest emergency care centers in central and southern Taiwan, providing comprehensive emergency medical care and protection for patients requiring urgent medical attention throughout southern Taiwan.

Since 2001, the Emergency Department of Chi Mei Medical Center has adopted advanced services, including mobile medical technologies, while continuously improving clinical processes and healthcare quality. These efforts have enhanced communication and facilitated timely intervention for patients with acute myocardial infarction, acute ischemic stroke, and major trauma, allowing critical treatment to be initiated as early as possible.

The Emergency Department of Chi Mei Medical Center is also one of the major emergency medicine specialty training centers in southern Taiwan. Approximately 13 residents are currently undergoing emergency medicine training, while around ten medical students from medical schools throughout Taiwan visit our Emergency Department each month for clinical clerkships. Chi Mei Medical Center continues to strive toward becoming one of the leading emergency medicine training institutions in Taiwan and is committed to contributing to the advancement of emergency medicine in Taiwan.

Our Training Program

The residency training curriculum is developed based on the distributed training requirements, EM Model, and Taiwan Emergency Medicine Milestone Project established by the Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine. The curriculum is designed to cultivate the knowledge, competencies, and clinical skills required for residents to practice emergency medicine effectively.

In response to the unique characteristics of the emergency medicine clinical environment, additional courses are provided in areas including consultation, patient transfer, communication and negotiation skills, emergency department violence, management of medical disputes and complaints, medical ethics, and the use of medical documentation, including medical records and medical certificates.

A dedicated “Resident Day” is also arranged to allow residents to focus on structured educational activities and training throughout the day.

To provide residents with experience and proficiency in a wide range of procedures, we collaborate with the Department of Thoracic Surgery to conduct surgical airway training and practice using porcine models following minimally invasive surgical training. Various workshops are also arranged to provide residents with hands-on procedural practice. Through practical training and repeated practice, residents can develop the skills and competence required to perform invasive procedures.

Since 2008, our hospital has implemented Team Resource Management (TRM). The Emergency Department has selected and trained faculty members as TRM instructors and subsequently implemented TRM training within the department to promote effective teamwork, enhance patient safety, and provide better patient care.

In 2011, the Emergency Department began collaborating with nursing staff to develop team-based resuscitation training. Following the release of the updated 2025 American Heart Association (AHA) CPR guidelines, which emphasize the importance of team-based training, our department continues to develop different training programs based on observed clinical needs and participant feedback.

Through team-based training, physicians and nurses are expected to maintain effective teamwork, communication, and interaction, enabling them to provide safer and higher-quality treatment to patients, improve healthcare quality, and promote patient safety.

In addition to training at the Yongkang campus, emergency medicine residents may, according to their training needs, be scheduled to provide clinical support at the emergency departments of Liouying Chi Mei Hospital and Chiali Chi Mei Hospital. This allows residents to receive training in emergency departments at different levels of healthcare institutions:

• Chi Mei Medical Center: Medical center
• Liouying Chi Mei Hospital: Regional hospital
• Chiali Chi Mei Hospital: District hospital

We are also currently exploring opportunities to collaborate with other hospitals serving remote and underserved communities.

Training across different levels of emergency departments allows residents to understand the characteristics and operational environments of emergency care at different levels of hospitals and to learn how to practice effectively in different clinical settings. Residents also learn how to integrate and make effective use of available resources to provide optimal patient care, while developing the ability to arrange appropriate and efficient patient transfers when medical resources are limited.

In addition to core emergency medicine competency training, our department actively collaborates with other specialties to provide subspecialty training opportunities and certification, recognizing the diverse career pathways available after completion of emergency medicine specialty training.

Current subspecialty training collaborations include:

• Medical Toxicology
• Hospice and Palliative Medicine
• Critical Care Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Integrative Medicine
• Occupational Medicine

In addition to encouraging diverse development through subspecialty training, we regularly invite experienced emergency medicine physicians to give lectures and share their experiences regarding career planning and strategies for preventing burnout.

Our Teaching Qualifications

Qualifications

1. Emergency medicine specialists employed by Chi Mei Medical Center. For training in other specialties, the relevant training should be provided by specialists in that respective field.
2. Faculty members are required to complete the following educational requirements:
   
   • Requirements established by the Taiwan Society of Emergency Medicine, including 12 educational credits within three years for full-time emergency medicine specialists.
   • Requirements established by the Chi Mei Medical Center Center of Faculty Development.

Responsibilities

Within their assigned clinical or teaching duties, faculty members are responsible for:

1. Supervising and guiding residents in their clinical practice.
2. Teaching educational courses and training sessions for residents.
3. Guiding and reviewing residents’ presentations and research projects.
4. Providing performance assessments and feedback to residents.
5. Reviewing and providing feedback on resident training content and teaching methods.

Resident Physician Salary and Benefits

1. Salaries are provided according to the resident salary system of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Chi Mei Medical Center. Monthly salary varies according to the number of assigned shifts and increases with years of service. Residents receive benefits equivalent to those provided to other hospital employees, as well as a competitive annual bonus.
2. Full reimbursement of registration fees and transportation expenses for conferences and training courses organized by medical societies.
3. Financial incentives are provided for research papers published in domestic or international medical journals, magazines, or presented at medical society conferences.
4. Residents who are accepted to present their research at international medical conferences receive full financial support for participation.

Daily Clinical Workload

1. Residents primarily work on a three-shift rotation system, with each shift lasting approximately 9–11 hours, depending on the assigned area and shift. The final two hours are designated for patient handoff and teaching. These hours are not counted toward clinical hours but are included in total working hours.
2. Patients Per Hour (PPH) is used as an indicator to monitor and maintain an appropriate resident workload.

Monthly Duty Schedule and Annual Leave

1. Emergency medicine residency training is based on approximately 180 clinical hours per month. Shift assignments are progressively accumulated according to each resident’s number of shifts in each category, with night shifts and holiday shifts distributed as evenly as possible among residents at different training levels. Annual leave is provided according to the hospital’s leave policy and administered through the department’s leave scheduling system.
2. Annual leave is centrally administered by the Human Resources Department on January 1 of each year. For employees with less than one year of service, annual leave is calculated on a prorated basis. Approved leave periods are included in the calculation of years of service, except for periods of voluntary suspension of employment.

Continuing Education and Specialty Advancement

1. Develop simulation-based training as a distinctive educational feature of emergency medicine specialty training at Chi Mei Medical Center.
2. Develop a comprehensive educational model for emergency physician–patient communication and clinical skills training to promote holistic emergency care.
3. Develop palliative and geriatric emergency care, and encourage emergency medicine residents to pursue specialty training in palliative care and geriatric medicine.
4. Develop expertise in emergency medicine subspecialties, including ultrasound, medical toxicology, prehospital emergency care, critical care medicine, and medical education.
5. Strengthen clinical and basic research in emergency medicine and provide guidance to senior residents in developing their research capabilities.
6. Strengthen teamwork within emergency medical care teams and actively participate in cross-campus and interdepartmental collaboration to improve healthcare quality.
7. Maintain continuous collaboration and communication with emergency departments throughout the Tainan area to improve the quality of emergency medical transfers.