Public Health Rationale for Investments in Emergency Medicine in Developing Countries - Ghana as a Case Study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Ghana is a developing country that has strategically invested in expanding emergency care services as a means of improving national health outcomes. OBJECTIVES: Here we present Ghana as a case study for investing in emergency care to achieve public health benefits that fuel for national development. DISCUSSION: Ghana's health leadership has affirmed emergency care as a necessary adjunct to its preexisting primary health care model. Historically, developing countries prioritize primary care efforts and outpatient clinic-based health care models. Ghana has added emergency medicine infrastructure to its health care system in an effort to address the ongoing shift in disease epidemiology as the population urbanizes, mobilizes, and ages. Ghana's investments include prehospital care, personnel training, health care resource provision, communication improvements, transportation services, and new health facilities. This is in addition to re-educating frontline health care providers and developing infrastructure for specialist training. Change was fueled by public support, partnerships between international organizations and domestic stakeholders, and several individual champions. CONCLUSION: Emergency medicine as a horizontal component of low- to middle-income countries' health systems may fuel national health and economic development. Ghana's experience may serve as a model.