The Emergency Medicine Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2011 Blue Jay Consulting/EMF Award for Emergency Department Director of the Year.

The award was created to identify and recognize an individual who has made significant strides in developing collaborative relationships with nursing to implement and improve operational and clinical standards in five specific areas: quality patient care, operational effectiveness, education, community service, and a synergistic approach to leadership within the hospital or hospital system.

Because successful emergency departments have strong collegial relationships between physicians and nurses, these collaborations can make lasting improvements in quality of care and patient satisfaction.

“The collaborative nature of emergency medicine is reflected in the goals of the Blue Jay award to recognize the successful ED director who demonstrates teamwork with the nursing leadership of their department,” said Mark J. Feinberg, Managing Partner, Blue Jay Consulting. “Our hope is that this award will provide encouragement to all who work in emergency medicine to continue to seek out every opportunity to improve patient care in the ED.”

To be considered, the nominee will have created and sustained a high degree of patient satisfaction with emergency care delivery and will have implemented creative and innovative strategies to improve all areas of the emergency department.

Dr. Rex G. Mathew, vice president of emergency medical clinical operations at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, was honored with the inaugural Blue Jay Consulting/EMF Award in April 2010.

With almost 80 nominations from some of the best directors in emergency medicine, the selection process was challenging. Dr. Mathew was ultimately chosen because of his demonstrated leadership abilities and clinical knowledge in working with leaders throughout the hospital to improve care in the emergency department.

“This year the Emergency Medicine Foundation has a special desire to work with young investigators to focus on health policy and process. The medical director award provides a most appropriate extension of this goal,” said Dr. Alexander Rosenau, EMF Chair. “The award process identifies and recognizes emergency directors who utilize actionable knowledge to improve the function of their emergency departments and the effectiveness of the health care delivery system of their institution.”

The Emergency Medicine Foundation, founded in 1972, is dedicated to serve as a catalyst to advance education and research in emergency medicine. To date, EMF has awarded nearly $10 million in research awards to advance emergency medicine science and research. For more information on the foundation, please visit www.emfoundation.org.