The Department of Emergency at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, established in October 2015 and backed by Zhejiang University, has the vision to excel in providing specialized health care. It upholds the mission of promoting human health through high-quality integration of medicine, education, and research, and remains committed to its core values of Service, Humanity, Integrity and Excellence. Guided by the spirit of saving lives and relieving suffering, and considering the hospital’s geographical setting, it has innovatively developed a comprehensive emergency care model integrating internal and external medicine, along with a unified trauma care system, by leveraging multidisciplinary strengths of emergency medicine, internal medicine, surgery, and critical care. With a focus on severe cardiopulmonary conditions, comprehensive management of major trauma, point-of-care ultrasonography, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), it features a resuscitation unit equipped with state-of-the-art emergency facilities and robust integrated trauma care capabilities covering the entire city and surrounding regions. It is fully capable of undertaking emergency rescue and medical support for various public health incidents and serves as the designated trauma center for traffic accident injuries in Yiwu City.
The department has complete functional units, strong technical expertise, and advanced medical devices. In addition to routine organ function monitoring and supportive therapies, it proficiently performs a range of advanced procedures, including ECMO, resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of aorta (REBOA), various blood purification techniques, pulse-induced contour cardiac output (PiCCO) monitoring, bedside fiberoptic bronchoscopy, therapeutic hypothermia, bedside ultrasound, mechanical ventilation, and percutaneous tracheostomy. An intelligent triage system is used for rapid patient assessment to ensure timely and effective medical services. The emergency care team takes full responsibility for a full spectrum of clinical activities, including acute resuscitation, hospitalization, surgical arrangements, consultations, and post-discharge follow-up.
The Emergency Department is a nationally accredited standard-version Chest Pain Center, a Stroke Prevention and Treatment Center, a member of both the China Trauma Treatment Alliance and the Zhejiang Trauma Treatment Alliance, a regional center for the management of high-risk upper gastrointestinal bleeding, a comprehensive health emergency support base (poisoning) in central Zhejiang, a member of the China Air Emergency Hospital Alliance, and a center for aortic dissection care. The department’s first-phase construction covers over 3,000 square meters, with well-established diagnostic and treatment zones and streamlined patient flow divided into Areas A, B, and C. It currently comprises 13 resuscitation beds, 19 observation beds, and 10 emergency intensive care beds. The dedicated emergency team includes more than 130 healthcare professionals, serving over 200,000 emergency patient visits annually and managing more than 15,000 critical cases each year. Over the past five years, the department has successfully secured 7 bureau-level research projects, published over 10 SCI-indexed papers, and filed 6 utility model patent applications.
In terms of education, the department implements blended online-offline training programs for pre-service orientation of new emergency nurses, as well as online teaching initiatives aimed at enhancing the comprehensive emergency response capabilities of pre-hospital medical personnel. It also offers Zhejiang University MOOC courses, including Fundamental Knowledge of Emergency Nursing and Clinical Skills in Emergency Procedures, which authentically recreate common urgent clinical scenarios and adhere to a practical, evidence-based approach.