Search: 2010, ERs Under Stress

In a snapshot of systemic waste, researchers have calculated that more than half of the 354 million doctor visits made each year for acute medical care, like for fevers, stomachaches and coughs, are not with a patient’s primary physician, and that more than a quarter take place in hospital emergency rooms.

Despite the growing availability of urgent care centers and retail clinics, Americans continue to seek a large amount of nonemergency care from hospital emergency departments (ED). A study published in the September issue of Health Affairs shows that hospital EDs could save $4.4 billion annually if more visits took place at alternative care sites.

Hospital emergency rooms (ERs) are there for you and your family when you need them most. We’re there 24 hours a day, seven days a week to care for every man, woman and child who enters our doors. Last year, California’s hospital emergency rooms cared for 11 million people with a variety of health conditions, including patients with severe chest pains, broken bones, those infected with the H1N1 flu virus, and children with high fevers and persistent coughs in the middle of the night.

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There were nearly 117 million patient visits to the nation's emergency departments in 2007, a 23% increase over a decade, or 39.4 visits per 100 persons, according to a federal National Health Statistics Reports review.

Need an X-ray or stitches? Online, via text message or flashing on a billboard, some emergency rooms are advertising how long the dreaded wait for care will be, with estimates updated every few minutes. 

Americans, insured and not, make ample use of hospital emergency rooms: One out of every five visited an E.R. at least once in 2007, the latest year for which the National Center for Health Statistics has data.

UCSF researchers found that ERs are increasingly serving as "safety nets" for basic health care services. Adults on Medi-Cal (Medicaid) visited ERs 5 times more often than adults with private insurance, creating longer wait times for everyone.

A report detailing record-long waits at the nation's emergency departments comes as no surprise to emergency physicians, who say waits will lengthen as health coverage expands, emergency departments close, and hospitals fail to improve admitting processes.

While the focus regarding health care reform has been on the complexity, cost, and political posturing, one issue hasn’t gotten nearly enough coverage. It’s the very real question of whether health care reform will increase ED patient volumes across the country

Emergency rooms, the only choice for patients who can't find care elsewhere, may grow even more crowded with longer wait times under the nation's new health law.