Yale-New Haven regularly ranks among the best hospitals in the U.S. and was accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in 1999. Relying on the skills of approximately 2,200 university-based and community physicians practicing more than 100 medical specialties, Yale-New Haven, the Children's Hospital and the Psychiatric Hospital provide services for more than 447,000 outpatient and emergency visits. In addition, Yale-New Haven is the second largest employer in the area with about 6,000 employees.

The emergency department is arranged into separate adult and pediatric sections. The adult department is subdivided into specialty areas for trauma resuscitations, medical critical care, and acute care. Additional areas include a fast-track center for urgent care patients, a crisis intervention unit (CIU) for patients needing emergent psychiatric treatment, an intoxication observation unit (IOU) for patients needing observation, and a chest pain center for patients who are at risk for cardiac pathology, but who are not exhibiting definitive signs of cardiac disease. The chest pain center has the ability to perform repeat enzyme testing, exercise stress tests, and nuclear imaging.

Visits to the Yale-New Haven Emergency Department total over 100,000 per year, which includes more than 70,000 adult patients and 30,000 children. Yale-New Haven Hospital is the only ACS-verified Level I trauma center in Southern Connecticut and the only Level I pediatric trauma center in Connecticut. Trauma ranges from blunt trauma due to motor vehicle crashes and falls, to complex multiple trauma cases requiring specialty services. Yale-New Haven Hospital serves as a regional referral center for a large number of services, including pediatric care which is provided at the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. The extensive resources of Yale-New Haven Hospital provide significant tertiary cases, while affiliations with numerous local health centers provide for diversity of medical cases. Opportunities exist to enroll patients in numerous clinical trials, both within the emergency department and jointly with other departments within the institution. Resources include full access to online texts, Micromedex, Medline, and other databases from terminals within the emergency department and throughout the hospital. The School of Medicine's Harvey Cushing Library, one of the largest medical libraries in the world, maintains one of the most extensive online journal access systems. This may be accessed from the hospital or from a resident's home through a proxy system.

Bridgeport Hospital
Bridgeport Hospital, a member of the Yale-New Haven Health System, is a 425-bed community teaching hospital which began as a 48-bed community hospital when it opened in 1884. Its inspirational first board president was the American showman P.T. Barnum. The hospital runs the only burn center in Connecticut, in addition to providing tertiary care services in pediatrics, obstetrics, and cardiology. Bridgeport operates some of its residency programs jointly with Yale-New Haven Hospital and others independently. The emergency medicine residency was planned jointly by both hospitals, making the community hospital experience a vital part of the integrated curriculum.