The Department of Emergency Medicine at MetroHealth Medical Center was established as an independent hospital department in 1981. Thirty-three emergency medicine faculty provide bedside supervision of patient care 24 hours each day to emergency medicine residents, resident physicians from related disciplines and to medical students.

More than 100,000 patients are treated annually, one-third age 19 years or under. The Emergency Department (ED) accounts for approximately 40 percent of the hospital's admissions. The ED is equipped to manage all levels of acute and sub-acute care. Included in the 80-bed ED is a six-bed resuscitation suite, four psychiatric seclusion rooms,  four cast rooms and an ophthalmologic/ENT examination room.  A 17-bed fast-track area and 14-bed observation area are also part of the ED.  

Around-the-clock laboratory support is available within the department, providing services such as bedside troponin I and urinary BHCG testing.

Metro Life Flight's Communications Center is also housed in the ED, where the emergency medicine faculty and residents provide online medical command for Cleveland EMS and several suburban fire departments. Communications specialists coordinate the use of state-of-the-art equipment to dispatch Metro LifeFlight aircraft to transport seriously injured or ill patients from accident scenes and referring and receiving hospitals. 

MetroHealth has had an established Ultrasound Fellowship for six years, has five machines in the ED and interface with the MetroHealth Medical Center PACS system.