E17 – Designing Resilient Emergency Departments: The Real-Life ED Behind “The Pitt”
The award-winning television series "The Pitt" is widely praised by the medical community for its accurate portrayal of healthcare workers and the daily realities in the emergency department. Though set in the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, many scenes were filmed at Allegheny Health Network’s Allegheny General Hospital, where the emergency department is currently undergoing a complex multi-phase renovation.
This session examines team-based workflows that integrate clinician perspectives with planning and design expertise to shape how the emergency department responds to mass-casualty incidents, extended surge periods, and patients experiencing behavioral distress. The team will explore strategies to future-proof emergency departments for emerging public health crises, reduce wait times and improve throughput, and enhance both staff and patient safety.
Attendees will gain actionable, clinician-informed takeaways for aligning department design with clinical workflows, improving resilience and adaptability, and translating frontline experience into practical design solutions from the design team and the lived experiences of Pittsburgh clinicians, who provided The Pitt’s creators and actors firsthand insight into the realities of emergency medicine. By merging real-world emergency medicine with lessons from the tv series, this session offers a unique, engaging perspective on optimizing emergency care delivery through thoughtful design and operations.
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