ER of future fights threats big and small

Backed by a $2.2 million federal grant and drawing on advice from a task force of experts, Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, is putting in what emergency department chairman Dr. Mark Smith hopes will be a first draft of the emergency department of the future. The ER is designed to handle a sudden influx of mass casualties from a natural disaster, biological attack or a pandemic, and at the same time prevent the hospital-acquired infections.