Today, U.S. emergency departments (EDs) face a similar conundrum -- seemingly limitless demand for emergency services. Beginning in 2012, the annual number of ED visitsopens in a new tab or window nationally jumped from 131 to 150 millionopens in a new tab or window in just 7 years, easily outstripping population growth. A recent studyopens in a new tab or window in California found that from 2011 through 2019, ED visits increased 23.4% while the state's population grew by only 5%.
Concurrently, measures of ED overcrowding and dysfunction have also skyrocketed. From 2017 through 2021, the median percentage of ED patients nationally who left without being seen (LWBS) doubled from 1% to 2%. Another study found that by the end of 2021, boarding in a sampling of academic EDs had surged 40%opens in a new tab or window beyond pre-pandemic levels. Many EDs now find themselves in a state of gridlock worthy of the I-405.
NOTE: ED treatment is NOT considered a medical necessity and is not covered by Medicare. You should likewise not expect Medicare to pay for an ambulance ride to the ED.
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Concurrently, measures of ED overcrowding and dysfunction have also skyrocketed. From 2017 through 2021, the median percentage of ED patients nationally who left without being seen (LWBS) doubled from 1% to 2%. Another study found that by the end of 2021, boarding in a sampling of academic EDs had surged 40%opens in a new tab or window beyond pre-pandemic levels. Many EDs now find themselves in a state of gridlock worthy of the I-405.
NOTE: ED treatment is NOT considered a medical necessity and is not covered by Medicare. You should likewise not expect Medicare to pay for an ambulance ride to the ED.
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Opinion | If You Build It, They Will Come: EDs Are Victims of Induced Demand
We cannot simply build our way out of the overcrowding and boarding crisis