11/07/2024
NEW RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS THE UNIQUE, IRREPLACEABLE ROLE OF HOSPITALS IN PROVIDING CARE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES.
WASHINGTON – A new analysis by KNG Health Consulting, an independent health economics and policy consulting firm, commissioned by the Coalition to Strengthen America’s Healthcare, confirms hospitals and health systems provide access to around-the-clock emergency and specialty care that other providers typically cannot offer, making them indispensable, crucial access points for care.
“Hospitals serve a unique role in the healthcare delivery system, by providing access to specialized and around-the-clock care not otherwise available,” according to the report. “Consequently, hospitals are essential for meeting the healthcare needs of the rural and urban populations they serve.”
Key Report Findings:
Hospitals are uniquely equipped to treat complex conditions that cannot be treated elsewhere. Among respondents to the AHA Annual Survey, the report found:
• 80% of all U.S. hospitals have an on-campus Emergency Department (ED). “EDs are the main destination for patients requiring immediate, unscheduled care. Hospital EDs provide around-the-clock care to all patients, regardless of ability to pay, and triage patients to ensure that they receive the appropriate level of care.”
• In 2021, 17.6 million Emergency Department (ED) visits resulted in hospitalization, and most of these (55%) occurred after hours or on weekends.
• 45% of hospitals offer a trauma center, with a multi-disciplinary team of surgeons, physicians, and caregivers ready to help patients facing life-threatening injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshots. More than a third of hospitals with trauma centers — almost 600 nationwide — are highly designated Level I or Level II trauma centers.
• 64% of Medicare fee-for-service patients who visit a hospital with a trauma center receive care directly from the trauma team, underscoring the seriousness of their illness or injury.
• Nearly 1,000 hospitals nationwide offer inpatient psychiatric beds, providing specialized treatment to individuals in mental health crisis.
• Overall, there is limited overlap between the conditions treated at hospital EDs and those commonly treated at urgent care clinics.
Hospitals are crucial access points for underserved and rural patients — standing by to provide care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
• Hospitals are utilized heavily in rural America, where access to physicians for routine and preventative care is especially limited. Rural patients turned to hospital EDs almost 18 million times in 2021 alone.
• More than 60% of ED visits occur on weekends or after regular business hours, when many other providers are closed.
• In 2021 alone, Americans visited EDs more than 83 million times after hours or on weekends.
Expanding on a previous fact sheet (https://strengthenhealthcare.org/emergency-department-report/) supported by KNG Consulting, which found that hospitals in the U.S. “treated patients during approximately 136 million ED visits in 2021,” this new research underscores that hospitals are irreplaceable for patients and entire communities. It sheds further light on the significant consequences that patients stand to suffer as increased pressures – from Medicare paying hospitals 82 cents on the dollar to corporate insurers’ push for so-called site-neutral Medicare cuts – force hospitals to reduce services or close entirely.
To strengthen Americans’ access to healthcare, policymakers must support fair and adequate reimbursement rates that allow patients to rely on 24/7 care from hospitals and health systems.
