Columbia Emergency Medical Group, Inc. is a private group of Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physicians practicing at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, a tertiary care center of excellence located in  Southern California.  In 1976, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center became one of the first emergency departments in the world to be staffed with residency trained emergency medicine physicians. There were six of us and we were providing care for 60‐70 patients a day in a 20 bed emergency department. Today, the ED staff consists of 35 board certified emergency physicians, including 6 who are certified in pediatric emergency medicine, and 15 advanced healthcare practitioners. The daily census has increased to 300 patients per day and the emergency department has expanded to 62 beds. The ED is currently providing care for about 100,000 patients a year. Of these, approximately 20,000 require admission to the Medical Center.

Emergency Medicine cannot be practiced in a vacuum; it requires the support of our staff colleagues and the support of the Medical Center. The ED at LBMMC is fortunate in this respect. With this support and in collegial cooperation with our staff colleagues, the ED has become a paramedic base station, an Emergency Department Approved for Pediatrics (far exceeding the requirements), a pediatric and adult trauma receiving center, a center designated for the treatment of strokes and acute myocardial infarction, and a ROSC receiving center. In addition, the ED has provided the necessary support for MCH to be designated as a Pediatric Critical Care Center. There are very few emergency departments in Los Angeles County who are able to provide this range of services and none in Orange County. The ED has been involved in medical education since its inception in 1976. Currently, 4 of our physicians are examiners for ABEM and all ED physicians hold academic affiliations. Didactic and clinical training is provided for Emergency residents from LAC+USC, Harbor‐UCLA and UCI, for Family Medicine residents from the LBMMC program, for Family Medicine residents from UCI, for Pediatric residents from the UCI‐CHOC‐MCH program and UCLA Mattel Children’s Program.

The emergency department considers itself a service department. We serve our shared patients, our staff colleagues and the Medical Center.  If we can serve you better, please let us know. Our door is always open to you, both literally and figuratively.

ED Medical Director

Dr. Andrew Wittenberg