Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Trends and Characterization of Academic Emergency Department Patient Visits: A Five-year Review.
To meet the unique comparative data needs of academic emergency departments (EDs), we describe the recent 5-year national and regional trends for adult emergency patients' characteristics and operational parameters at academic emergency medical centers. ⋯ With a focus on larger academic institutions, differences were noted in the overall increases in volume and acuity. In this survey, participating institutions experienced increased volumes of patients with seemingly higher illness severity. While inroads have been made in LWBS rates, there has not been an overall decrease in total walkouts. The data reported here differed in many aspects compared to other benchmark surveys.