on August 27, 2010 |
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Topics: Cardiovascular, Service Lines, Medicaid, Reimbursement, Finance
A recent JAMA study highlights the increasing use of EDs in the United States between 1997 and 2007, as growing enrollment in Medicaid has lead to more patients relying on the emergency department to fill gaps in care. Over the study's time frame, visits rose 23%, an additional 21 million visits nationwide.
During the 10 years, visit rates rose from 352.8 to 390.5 per 1,000 people with the median wait time to see physicians increasing from 22 to 33 minutes. Visits by adult Medicaid patients was the source for most of the increase with the rate going from 693.9 to 947.2 visits per 1,000 enrollees between 1999 and 2007.
Continue reading:
Cooling Cardiac Arrest Patients May Improve Outcomes by One-Third
