Dive Brief:
- Hoping to ease overcrowding, often by patients who could be safely treated in lower acuity settings, many hospital emergency departments are looking for ways to redirect patients to other appropriate settings.
- Geriatric care in the ED is a particular stress point. Experts project the number of people older than 65 seeking healthcare services will double over the next four decades, and that the number of patients over the age of 85 may triple. Some hospitals are developing geriatric-specific EDs to address this coming need.
- Hospitals are also opening urgent care clinics to divert the less acutely ill away from the ED.
Dive Insight:
It makes sense for hospitals to deal with geriatric care in a specialized way, since the needs of the elderly differ from those of pre-retirement age. It also makes sense to put urgent care clinics on the campus of or nearby hospitals, as it may indeed divert patients away from the ED. However, as long as large numbers of uninsured Americans remain, and the ED is the only place that is required to treat them, these changes will make only incremental improvements. Given how expensive an ED visit is, it might save hospitals money to offer free or very discounted access to urgent care clinics on their premises. That way, they won't be forced into an expensive ED encounter.