The latest reforms policy changes in emergency healthcare department, the number of people relying on it are increasing. A new study published in the JAMA Internal Medicine on Nov 5, 2019, indicates improved patients outcomes from emergency healthcare. According to this study, a fewer number of patients are admitted to the emergency department thus observed a low mortality rate.
Instead of going to an urgent clinic or a primary care center, people prefer to head towards the emergency department. In America one in five visits the ED despite moving towards the alternative acute care centers. It is more like a national trend to visit the ED annually that continuously increases the number of patients. As a result, the capacity of hospitals is declining day by day. The reduced number of patients attending hospitals is somehow a negative impact and it may harm the healthcare sector in the near future.
The study is carried out by the team of researchers run by an emergency physician, Laura Burke, MD, MPH at the Bath Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). This study indicates the low mortality rates among the Medicare beneficiaries who are receiving emergency care in the U.S. The mortality rates within the 30 days have improved 23 % particularly among the patients with more severe conditions. This was done by admitted the fewer number of patients and by sending them home.
According to Laura Burke, good quality care and a better health system were provided to the patients by the ED physicians at the right time considering the basic needs of the patients. The data indicates that despite visiting the greater number of patients with severe chronic disease to the emergency department, the quality and system of the ED are not compromised rather it is improving with the coming days. It usually prevents the stay at the hospital and makes the people more confident to lead healthy lives.
Between 2009-2016 15 million patient visits among the Medicare beneficiaries were observed by Dr. Burke and colleagues. This was done to analyze that which conditions the patient is admitted to the hospital and which conditions enable doctors to discharge them from ED. The analysis also includes the differences in mortality rates of the patients using ED in various medical centers and hospitals including small community hospitals, rural area hospitals, large tertiary care centers in urban. This trend also observed in the patients using ED having severe conditions to a healthier lifestyle.
The study also explored the ways of controlling the health care cost and better outcomes for the patients by providing early diagnosis and treatment to the people with the signs and symptoms of diseases.
According to a study, during the emergency healthcare visits the ED is lacking in the availability of the emergency physicians and on-call specialists for the timely treatment. The rural areas are suffering more with this scenario and it needs to be focused by the government and other regulatory bodies for better results.
The study was funded by the Emergency Medicine Foundation to check the “Value of Emergency Care.”
The source reported by Burke is the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). It is a national medical society that represents emergency care for medicine. ACEP improves its emergency care through research, education, public awareness, and advocacy. It has a team of 40000 emergency physicians who treat more the 150 million Americans round the year. For more study visit this site.
