"The ER, 50 Years On" is an interesting article published in the NEJM which takes a look at the evolution of emergency care over the past five decades. It's amazing to see how things have changed in such a short period of time and makes me wonder what the emergency care landscape is going to look like years from now with the implementation of
ACOs and health care reform.
A few interesting statistics:
- Presently emergency care accounts for 3% of health care spending and employs 4% of US physicians yet handles 11% of outpatient visits, 28% of acute care visits and half of hospital admissions.
- Presently the aggregate ER admission rate is 16.5%
To read the NEJM,
click here.
