This piece focuses on the importance of patient safety following the end of the public health emergency and how organizations can move beyond the pandemic.

A woman with acute myeloid leukemia presented to the emergency department (ED) with shortness of breath after receiving chemotherapy. As laboratory test results showed acute kidney injury and suggested tumor lysis syndrome, the patient was started on emergent hemodialysis. She experienced worsening dyspnea and was emergently intubated and transferred to the intensive care unit. There, her blood pressure began to drop, and she died despite aggressive measures.

Admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to severe pancreatitis, an older woman had a central line placed. Despite maximal treatment, the patient experienced a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. The intensivist was also actively managing numerous other ICU patients and lacked time to consider why the patient's condition had worsened.

Transferred to a tertiary hospital, a child with severe swelling of the brain is found to have venous sinus thromboses and little chance of survival. Further review revealed that the referring hospital had missed subtle signs of cerebral edema on the initial CT scan days earlier, raising the question of whether to disclose the errors of other facilities or caregivers.

Emergency medicine has evolved from a location, with variably trained and experienced providers ("the ER"), to a discipline with a well-defined knowledge base and skill set that focus on the diagnosis and care of undifferentiated acute problems.(1) The importance of rapid diagnosis and treatment of serious conditions (e.g., myocardial infarction, stroke, trauma, and sepsis) has made timeliness not simply a determinant of patient satisfaction but also a significant safety and quality concern—delays in care can be deadly.(2) Emergency physicians (EPs) have identified delays caused by crowding fr