Emergency department (ED) boarding has negative financial implications, according to a study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Researchers considered observational data for acute stroke patients admitted between January and February 2022 and found that the daily cost of ED boarding was nearly twice that of daily inpatient costs, even before considering the opportunity cost of keeping an ED bed occupied. For example, the total daily cost per patient with acute stroke who experienced ED boarding was $1,856 compared to $993 per day for inpatient care. Meanwhile, ED nurses spent 293 minutes per day caring for each patient boarded in the ED, compared to inpatient nurses who spent 313 minutes per day for each inpatient.
Yet another reason to rely on UC: In general, average ED boarding time was 110 minutes in 2023, which is an improvement over the previous year’s 182 minutes, according to data from 1,165 EDs covering 40 million patients, as published in Becker’s. Knowing that EDs are plenty busy, urgent care has ample opportunity to remind the community of its value in helping patients avoid the ED when possible.
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