Case study: ED visits soar in MA

As FierceHealthcare readers know, more patients are seeking care in emergency departments than ever before, taxing not only EDs but hospitals as a whole. This problem includes hospitals in Massachusetts, where the cost of caring for such patients has shot up 17 percent over two years, according to new data from the state. 

This comes as visits to the state's EDs continue to climb, with volume increasing 7 percent between 2005 and 2007 alone, to about 2.5 million visits. Officials estimate that the cost of treating such patients climbed from $826 million to $973 million during that period.

What galls many health planners is that 47 percent of those patients could have been treated in a doctor's office, a number that has remained stable over the past few years despite efforts to divert less-acute visitors to more appropriate settings. Worse, officials are concerned that this is happening despite the fact that the state enacted a law in 2006 requiring almost every citizen to have health insurance.

Observers suggest that this proves a point they've been making all along--that the system would benefit other sorts of changes. These include creating a bigger supply of primary care doctors and nurses, and creating payment systems that reward intense monitoring of patients with chronic illnesses.

To learn more about this issue:
- read this Boston Globe piece

Related Articles:
'Hallway medicine' may be key to ED crowding
Congress takes on ER overcrowding
Study: ED crowding affects care
Survey: ED overcrowding getting worse

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