While many emergency department visits are urgent, it has also become a catch-all for patients with no other options for care. Visits to the ED have increased 19 percent in the last decade, according to a report from the American Hospital Association.
The issue is especially prominent in behavioral health. Inpatient psychiatric units and beds in hospitals have declined significantly since 1995. The report indicates there were 662 inpatient psychiatric units in hospitals in 1995, compared to 410 in 2013. It also shows a decline in freestanding behavioral health facilities from 1,507 in 1995 to 1,234 in 2013.
At the same time, behavioral health-related ED visits are increasing, rising from 9.2 million in 2005 to 10.4 million in 2012. In some regions, it can take 12 or more hours to place a patient in an inpatient psychiatric bed, according to the report.
More articles on integration and physician issues:
Communication breakdown: Study finds patients, physicians interpret heart attack risk differently
U of I President and board OK engineering-based medical school
11 key statistics on provider placement in 2015