Annals of emergency medicine
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Comparative Study
A Cross-Sectional Analysis of High-Acuity Professional Services Performed by Urban and Rural Emergency Care Physicians Across the United States.
We seek to examine differences in the provision of high-acuity professional services between rural and urban physicians receiving reimbursement for emergency care evaluation and management services from Medicare fee-for-service Part B. ⋯ In comparison with rural physicians, urban physicians providing emergency care received reimbursements for a greater PHAC when caring for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Policymakers must consider these differences in the design and implementation of new emergency care payment policies.
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Studies of early data found that US emergency departments (EDs) were characterized by prolonged patient waiting, long visit times, frequent and prolonged boarding (ie, patients kept waiting in ED hallways or other space outside the ED on admission to the hospital), and patients leaving without receiving or completing treatment. We sought to assess recent trends in ED throughput nationally. ⋯ Overall, there was improvement in ED timeliness from 2006 to 2016. However, we observed a decrease in the proportion of the sickest patients discharged within 8 hours of arrival, although this may be due to increased ancillary testing or specially consultation over time.