From Fortune (Link: https://fortune.com/2024/06/07/healthcare-costs-emergency-room-hospitals-er-ed-doctors-patients/):
According to the most recent CDC statistics available, over 139.8 million Americans visit hospital emergency rooms each year. This translates to 42.7 visits for every 100 people. Of the people who are seen by an ER, only about 13 percent end up being admitted to hospitals. Not surprisingly, the ER visit rate for patients with private insurance was the lowest, while people who are on Medicaid or other state-based programs had the highest emergency room visit rate compared to other expected payment sources.
What do these numbers tell us? It’s tough to tease out how many people with health anxiety are driving up the number of ER visits, because there isn’t enough research available that reflects that number. But these statistics still reveal that a lot of people in the U.S. are going to the ER when they could be seen by a primary care doctor or an urgent care center provider instead—and that’s a real wallop to our healthcare system, both cost-wise and to the quality of care we can deliver.
One problem is that emergency rooms aren’t really set up to be “first come, first served,” so patients end up waiting longer. You might have a fever, but despite having already signed in with the triage nurse and waiting fifteen minutes, if a car accident victim comes in, you’ll be pushed down the line, and rightfully so. Wait times at urgent care clinics typically range from minutes to an hour, while patients in a busy ER can be sitting there two, three, or more than four hours, depending on who else shows up and what they’re presenting with.
There’s a domino effect that starts even sooner than that. Misuse or overuse of 911 calls for nonemergencies carries the risk of overwhelming emergency medical system services and threatens to increase ambulance wait time. This adds costs to municipal services. In addition, delayed EMS response time increases the risk to patients waiting for help.
As people stack up in the ER, wait times lengthen, contributing to overcrowding. This can negatively impact the quality of care. Prolonged wait times are directly associated with “higher risks of mortality, hospital admission, 30-day readmission, patient dissatisfaction, and costs,” according to one 2023 report in JAMA.
Comments