Emergency medicine physicians and advanced care providers at the University of Wisconsin deliver exceptional patient-centered emergency care to a high-acuity and medically complex patient population as part of the university’s integrated health system: UW Health. With the Greater Madison area having excellent access to primary care services, our emergency departments care for the highest acuity patients presenting along the full spectrum of illness and injury.
Patients are brought to our emergency departments from around the region, and some can be brought to us by Med Flight, our premier air and ground critical care transport and retrieval service.
Providing patient- and family-centered care in every decision, we put our patients first by focusing on their unique medical and emotional needs. We work alongside an excellent team of skilled and compassionate nurses, technicians, social workers, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, case managers, and care coordinators who are similarly dedicated to providing the highest quality of care.
To continually advance patient care, we have dedicated quality improvement programs, including a robust peer review process with monthly M&M conferences. We are also expanding telehealth capabilities to support your professional development and patient care needs.
Our clinical sites & services
Located in Madison, University Hospital is a 505-bed regional referral center that is home to a Level I adult and pediatric trauma center, American College of Surgeons-verified Burn Center, one of the nation’s largest organ transplant programs, one of the nation’s first certified comprehensive stroke centers and the UW Carbone Cancer Center, one of 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive centers in the country. It has been ranked No. 1 of all Wisconsin hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report.
University Hospital was among the first in the nation to be verified under the new American College of Surgeons Emergency General Surgery Verification Program (ACS EGS-VP) launched in September 2022.
The 41,000 square-foot ED is designed to meet the critical medical needs of 70,000 adult and pediatric patients each year and over 300 patients per day. Patient acuity is high as demonstrated by a 27.4% admission rate. The ED has 58 beds, including 10 pediatric rooms, 3 Multiple Purpose Procedure (MPP) rooms, a 4-bed flexible care area, and 2 physician-in-triage/intake rooms known as CareSTART (Safe and Timely Assessment and Rapid Treatment). We are also fortunate to have 24/7 pharmacists and social workers in our department.
Our critical care faculty also clinically staff University Hospital’s state-of-the-art, 18-bed intensive care unit plumbed for multimodality monitoring and eICU cameras. University Hospital is also recognized as an ELSO Center of Excellence Gold Status for ECMO and one of only a few academic centers in the U.S. recognized as a Center of Excellence for Antimicrobial Stewardship by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).
Learn more about University Hospital.
UW Health’s East Madison Hospital is one of the most advanced wellness centers in the country with full medical/surgical inpatient services. This 56-bed community hospital sees healthcare as a holistic endeavor with a mission to not only diagnose and treat patients when they’re sick, but also to partner with them in health and wellness. East Madison Hospital is a Level IV Trauma Center and certified Acute Stroke Ready Hospital by The Joint Commission, indicating its high level of stroke readiness and response.
The emergency department cares for a diverse group of patients in this community setting where services and specialties available continue to expand. The 20-bed emergency department cares for approximately 32,500 adult and pediatric patients annually, with the flexibility to expand to 32 beds during census surges. With rapidly increasing patient volumes, both our staffing paradigm and physical footprint continue to grow, with new full-time patient rooms planned to open in 2026.
The Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine delivers compassionate, high-quality, evidence-based emergency care to children from throughout the region and across the state. Clinical care is primarily delivered at our 11-bed dedicated pediatric emergency department at the American Family Children’s Hospital—a nationally -ranked, 111-bed facility with pediatric and neonatal surgical intensive care units that have served the special needs of children for more than 100 years. It is a busy Level I trauma center, one of two in the state, and the only Level 1 burn center in Wisconsin.
The pediatric ED cares for approximately 17,000 pediatric patients annually—many with high acuity—and is staffed by a knowledgeable, growing group of fellowship-trained pediatric emergency medicine faculty working closely with trainees from pediatric and emergency medicine residencies, as well as medical students at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Pediatric patients treated here account for 22% of total patients seen at the UH ED annually, and pediatric patients requiring hospitalization are admitted directly to the American Family Children’s Hospital.
A dedicated team of specialized pediatric nurses and respiratory therapists also staff pediatric ED alongside 24/7 child life, pharmacy and social work services, with the department having a strong, collaborative relationship with pediatric/neonatal critical care transport teams. View our pediatric emergency medicine providers.
As one of the nation’s distinguished five-star Veterans Health Administration medical centers, the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital is 119-bed acute care facility provides tertiary care to 89,000 veterans across 19 counties in Wisconsin & Illinois and includes one of the few heart, lung, kidney, and liver transplant and LVAD programs within the VHA.
The Madison VHA hospital is physically contiguous with University Hospital and houses an 11-bed emergency department that provides care to 13,500 adult patients annually and is accredited as a Level 2 Geriatric Emergency Department by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Our faculty physicians provide 12 hours of attending physician coverage daily, and we partner with emergency medicine pharmacists, Women’s Health, Mental Health, critical care and palliative care services to provide comprehensive emergency care for veterans.

A busy Level III trauma center that is part of the Beloit Health System, this 111-bed community hospital and 26-bed ED is located 45 miles south of Madison on the Wisconsin/Illinois border. The ED cares for approximately 36,000 patients annually. This hospital hosts our residents during their PGY-2 and PGY-3 years and provides a clinical home for a number of our fellows to grow as independent providers.
UW Health Med Flight is a premier air and ground critical care transport and retrieval service that has served the upper Midwest for nearly 40 years and logs more than 2,200 transports per year. Our program is CAMTS-certified and has long been recognized in air medical circles for its success in providing one of the safest air medical transport services in the country.
We partner with leading FAA-certified and industry-accredited Metro Aviation, Inc. to maintain, operate and pilot all aircraft, and we are one of only a few programs in the country to transport with a licensed physician routinely on board. Our ground ambulances transport patients of any age and are equipped as mobile ICU/NICU, and we also operate a busy air and ground Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Transport Program.
Learn more about UW Health Med Flight.
About the UW Health System
UW Health is the integrated regional health system of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Annually, more than 800,000 patients in the upper Midwest and beyond are served by over 1,800 physicians providing care in seven hospitals and more than 90 outpatient sites. UW Health is governed by the UW Hospitals and Clinics Authority and partners with the UW School of Medicine and Public Health to fulfill its patient care, research, education and community service missions.
UW Health Hospitals, which includes both University Hospital on the UW–Madison campus and East Madison Hospital, has been ranked No. 1 in Wisconsin for 13 years in a row by U.S. News and World Report. Newsweek and Statista World’s Best Specialized Hospitals report ranks University Hospital #1 in WI, #22 in US, and #84 in the world, and Becker’s Hospital Review named UW Health to its 100 Great Hospitals in America. UW Health Kids is also a nationally recognized leader in primary and specialty care for children and adolescents. In addition, the UW Health Transplant Center is the only location in the Midwest actively transplanting all five organs for children and adults.
UW Health has been designated by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as a Leader in LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality in the Healthcare Equality Index. University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, East Madison Hospital and American Family Children’s Hospital are also recognized as Magnet®-designated facilities for nursing excellence and quality patient care.
Learn more at uwhealth.org or read more facts & figures about the UW Health system.