Trends in the Contribution of Emergency Departments to the Provision of Hospital-Associated Health Care in the USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Marcozzi ◽  
Brendan Carr ◽  
Aisha Liferidge ◽  
Nicole Baehr ◽  
Brian Browne

Traditional approaches to assessing the health of populations focus on the use of primary care and the delivery of care through patient-centered homes, managed care resources, and accountable care organizations. The use of emergency departments (EDs) has largely not been given consideration in these models. Our study aimed to determine the contribution of EDs to the health care received by Americans between 1996 and 2010 and to compare it with the contribution of outpatient and inpatient services using National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Discharge Survey databases. We found that EDs contributed an average of 47.7% of the hospital-associated medical care delivered in the United States, and this percentage increased steadily over the 14-year study period. EDs are a major source of medical care in the United States, especially for vulnerable populations, and this contribution increased throughout the study period. Including emergency care within health reform and population health efforts would prove valuable to supporting the health of the nation.

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-506
Author(s):  
John Fry

A British physician and recent visitor to the United States records his observations on the present situation of health services in America. While progress has been made since his last visit 7 years ago, much remains to be accomplished. Some obstacles to an effective national health care system in the organization of medicine in the United States are noted, and some suggestions for achieving the goal of adequate medical care for all Americans are offered.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 276-284
Author(s):  
William J. Jefferson

The United States Supreme Court declared in 1976 that deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain…proscribed by the Eighth Amendment. It matters not whether the indifference is manifested by prison doctors in their response to the prisoner’s needs or by prison guards intentionally denying or delaying access to medical care or intentionally interfering with treatment once prescribed—adequate prisoner medical care is required by the United States Constitution. My incarceration for four years at the Oakdale Satellite Prison Camp, a chronic health care level camp, gives me the perspective to challenge the generally promoted claim of the Bureau of Federal Prisons that it provides decent medical care by competent and caring medical practitioners to chronically unhealthy elderly prisoners. The same observation, to a slightly lesser extent, could be made with respect to deficiencies in the delivery of health care to prisoners of all ages, as it is all significantly deficient in access, competencies, courtesies and treatments extended by prison health care providers at every level of care, without regard to age. However, the frailer the prisoner, the more dangerous these health care deficiencies are to his health and, therefore, I believe, warrant separate attention. This paper uses first-hand experiences of elderly prisoners to dismantle the tale that prisoner healthcare meets constitutional standards.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghid El-Yafouri ◽  
Leslie Klieb ◽  
Valérie Sabatier

Abstract Background: Wide adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) systems in the United States can lead to better quality medical care at a lower cost. Despite the laws and financial subsidies by the U.S. government for service providers and suppliers, the adoption has been slow. Understanding the EMR adoption drivers for physicians and the role of policymaking can translate into increased adoption rate and enhanced information sharing between medical care providers. Methods: Physicians across the United States were surveyed to gather primary data on their psychological, social, and technical perceptions toward EMR systems. This quantitative study builds on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Technology Acceptance Model, and the Diffusion of Innovation theory to propose, test, and validate an innovation adoption model for the health care industry. 382 responses were collected and data were analyzed via linear regression to uncover the effects of 12 variables on the intention to adopt EMR systems.Results: Regression model testing uncovers that government policymaking or mandates and other social factors have little or negligible effect on physicians’ intention to adopt an innovation. Rather, physicians are directly driven by their attitudes and ability to control, and indirectly motivated by their knowledge of the innovation, the financial ability to acquire the system, the holistic benefits to their industry, and the relative advancement of the system compared to others.Conclusions: A unidirectional mandate from the government is not sufficient for physicians to adopt an innovation. Government, health care associations, and EMR system vendors can benefit from our findings by working toward increasing the physicians’ knowledge of the proposed innovation, socializing how medical care providers and the overall industry can benefit from EMR system adoption, and solving for the financial burden of system implementation and sustainment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lila Flavin ◽  
Leah Zallman ◽  
Danny McCormick ◽  
J. Wesley Boyd

In health care policy debates, discussion centers around the often-misperceived costs of providing medical care to immigrants. This review seeks to compare health care expenditures of U.S. immigrants to those of U.S.-born individuals and evaluate the role which immigrants play in the rising cost of health care. We systematically examined all post-2000, peer-reviewed studies in PubMed related to health care expenditures by immigrants written in English in the United States. The reviewers extracted data independently using a standardized approach. Immigrants’ overall expenditures were one-half to two-thirds those of U.S.-born individuals, across all assessed age groups, regardless of immigration status. Per capita expenditures from private and public insurance sources were lower for immigrants, particularly expenditures for undocumented immigrants. Immigrant individuals made larger out-of-pocket health care payments compared to U.S.-born individuals. Overall, immigrants almost certainly paid more toward medical expenses than they withdrew, providing a low-risk pool that subsidized the public and private health insurance markets. We conclude that insurance and medical care should be made more available to immigrants rather than less so.


2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (6) ◽  
pp. 815-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary K. Wolfe ◽  
Noreen C. McDonald ◽  
G. Mark Holmes

Objectives. To quantify the number of people in the US who delay medical care annually because of lack of available transportation and to examine the differential prevalence of this barrier for adults across sociodemographic characteristics and patient populations. Methods. We used data from the National Health Interview Survey (1997–2017) to examine this barrier over time and across groups. We used joinpoint regression analysis to identify significant changes in trends and multivariate analysis to examine correlates of this barrier for the year 2017. Results. In 2017, 5.8 million persons in the United States (1.8%) delayed medical care because they did not have transportation. The proportion reporting transportation barriers increased between 2003 and 2009 with no significant trends before or after this window within our study period. We found that Hispanic people, those living below the poverty threshold, Medicaid recipients, and people with a functional limitation had greater odds of reporting a transportation barrier after we controlled for other sociodemographic and health characteristics. Conclusions. Transportation barriers to health care have a disproportionate impact on individuals who are poor and who have chronic conditions. Our study documents a significant problem in access to health care during a time of rapidly changing transportation technology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
David U. Himmelstein ◽  
Steffie Woolhandler ◽  
Mark Almberg ◽  
Clare Fauke

While efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act were narrowly defeated, grave problems in health care persist. Twenty-eight million remain uninsured, a number that is likely to increase. Millions more who have coverage cannot afford care because of high cost-sharing requirements. Meanwhile, the corporate takeover of medical care in the United States is at a gallop. This article provides a brief précis of recent data on U.S. health policy.


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