But freestanding EDs may help reduce wait times in smaller communities, the study revealed.
Researchers from Rice University in Houston examined data from the American Hospital Association annual survey and the American Community Survey as well as freestanding ED licensing data from the Texas Department of State Health Services from 2010 to 2016.
The study found freestanding EDs “did not affect the number of visits to hospital EDs, emergency room wait time, length of visit for discharged patients or the rate of patients who left without being seen in hospital EDs,” said Vivian Ho, a study co-author, the James A. Baker III Institute chair in health economics and director of the Center for Health and Biosciences at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
In areas outside the four major metropolitan areas in Texas — Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin — researchers found that the presence of satellite freestanding EDs was linked to a reduction in wait times at hospital EDs and ED length-of-stay.
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