Nonemergency visits to the emergency room : revelations from the COVID era.

Emergency rooms ("ERs") in the United States ("US") must see all patients regardless of their ability to pay. Many uninsured patients that cannot pay for healthcare treatments tend to use ERs for primary care. This contributes to excessive healthcare costs in the US, financial challenges for hospitals, and overcrowding with long wait times at ERs. This study evaluates all outpatient emergency room visits in the state of Texas from 2017 to 2002 (60 million patient visits) and identifies those visits where patients were not treated as a method to categorize them as nonemergency visits. Declines in visits are analyzed using the COVID pandemic as a natural experiment and exogenous increase in the cost of going to the ER due to more perceived risks. Findings show that the portion of patients that visit the ER but do not need emergency treatment is significant, and the portion significantly dropped during COVID when these patients chose not to go to the ER. This results in increased revenue-per-visit for ERs after COVID lockdowns occurred. These findings offer a substantial savings strategy for US healthcare costs if primary care facilities, which are much less costly to provide care than ERs, were made available to patients that are visiting ERs for nonemergency care.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Monger, Meade, 1965-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Pham, Van Hoang.

• ER visits.
• Emergency room visits.
• Revenue per visit.
• No treatment share.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13052

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/13052