Emergency medicine is a branch of medicine that is practiced in a hospital emergency department, in the field (in a modified form; see EMS), and other locations where initial medical treatment of trauma and illness takes place. Emergency medicine is oriented to situations in which care is required immediately and does not usually concern itself with long-term care (although, obviously, EM physicians and pre-hospital technicians will do everything they can in their treatment to improve the long-term outcome of a patient).