1. Emergency department length of stay is expected to increase 10 percent faster than population growth in the next 40 years, meaning EDs will need to increase capacity by 10 percent to meet this demand, even without an increase in the number of ED visits, according to a study in Health Affairs.
2. An online system connecting primary care providers and specialists at San Francisco General Hospital helped shorten wait times for specialty services and improved the coordination of care, according to a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine.
3. Processing blood tests using point-of-care devices can slightly reduce the length of time to disposition decisions for emergency department patients for a moderate increase in cost, according to a study in the Emergency Medicine Journal.
4. A coordinated patient transport system at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic improved operating room on-time starts fourfold, according to a study in Journal for Healthcare Quality.
5. Having patients see a physician or physician’s assistant first in the emergency department reduced the rate of leaving without being seen and wait time at a 265-bed community hospital, according to a study in Journal for Healthcare Quality.
6. Those covered by health insurance are hospitalized less than those who are not and incur lower healthcare costs, according to a study in Health Affairs.
7. Each year from 2001 to 2011, approximately 20 percent of Americans visited the emergency department at least once, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics report, “Health, United States, 2012: With Special Feature on Emergency Care.”
