Tag: Emergency Medicine

Kentucky’s Medicaid patients cost taxpayers a whopping $9.3 million by inappropriately visiting the ER almost 200,000 times in 2015. 

Baltimore, the city that saw a nearly record-breaking 344 homicides, and 900 people shot in 2015, piloted the Safe Streets Program in an effort to reduce street violence, a leading factor for much of the city’s ER overcrowding.

When it comes to ER overcrowding, hospital staff must balance the impossible: mile-high patient demand with a shortage of physicians and resources.

With emergency visits in the U.S. climbing from 115 million in 2005 to 136.3 million in 2016, industry thought leaders have been exploring innovative ways to impact wait times, over crowding, and patient outcomes in emergency departments.

Children between 2 and 10 years old who showed up at the ER with public insurance were roughly 20 percent less likely to get admitted during these peak times, according to a recent article published by the Washington Post.

For low-level problems like bronchitis or urinary tract infections, consumers are more likely to go to the emergency department than to a health clinic located less than a 10-minute drive away, a new study suggests.