What it means
In hospital notes and handoffs, ED nearly always means the emergency department, the part of a hospital that treats people who arrive without an appointment with urgent or emergency problems. In medication lists, men's health and urology notes it can mean erectile dysfunction. The sentence around it tells which one is meant.
For the nurse
When the meaning is not clear, write the words out in full in your own notes.
In a chart
"Client admitted from the ED with chest pain; report received from the ED nurse."
Related terms
triage
Sorting clients by how urgently they need care, to decide who is seen first.