Is the ED the Hospital’s Cash Cow?
Growing use of U.S. emergency departments (EDs), cited as a key contributor to rising health care costs, has become a leading target of health care reform. ED visit rates increased by more than a third between 1997 and 2007…The number of hospital admissions increased by 15.0%, from 34.3 million in 1993 to 39.5 million in 2006; admissions from the ED increased by 50.4%, from 11.5 million to 17.3 million. The proportion of all inpatient stays involving admission from the ED increased from 33.5 to 43.8%.
Source: NEJM.
Isn’t it possible to say that there is a link to the recession in this? As in, people are less well-off financially and therefore put off medical care until it turns into an emergency.
Might be, Alex. I heard somewhere that there might also be a link to illegal immigration in places like southern California, where emergency room visits by illegals are particularly high and where there are larger numbers of illegals.
When I worked in a hospital, EDs were not money-makers. Increasingly, hospitals are boosting the size of Emergency Departments (EDs) and even building free-standing EDs.