The American College of Emergency Physicians recently published a survey (PDF) confirming that the number of specialists willing to serve on call at the emergency departments of the nation's hospitals appears to be declining and to fall well short of what is needed. The reasons are complex -- EMTALA, the federal law mandating emergency care, apparently has lots of unintended consequences -- but the high liability exposure of emergency medicine is also cited as a factor. ACEP maintains a page on liability issues more generally.