Dive Brief:
- Though many experts hope that the new health care reform law will lower the need for Americans to visit the ED to get care, a new study suggests that this might not happen.
- The new study, by the Center for Studying Health System Change, found that adults with access to primary and urgent care said fear rather than convenience was likely to send them to the ED, as well as inability to reach a primary care doctor.
- About 30% of patients surveyed who visited an ED said the only reason they do it did this was for urgently needed care; only about 2.5% visit was solely for convenience.
Dive Insight:
It must be discouraging for those who are attempting to discourage use of the emergency department in hospitals. No matter what scheme they evolve, it always seems to leave a substantial number of patients still determined to use the ED, a not-too-surprising result given that a number of primary care practices instruct their patients to visit the ED on a regular basis, seemingly as a stopgap when they are overbooked. Clearly, the problem of ED overuse has many layers, and simply changing the incentives doesn't seem to be enough to make a big dent.