An Evaluation of Emergency Hand Coverage in Tennessee After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Although the upper extremity is the most commonly injured part of the body, many studies have indicated that there is a lack of emergency hand coverage in the United States. In 2010, our laboratory evaluated on-call hand coverage in Tennessee (TN) and found that only 7% of hospitals had a hand surgeon on call for emergency cases at all times. In 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented with the goal of increasing overall access to care and decreasing health care costs.

Transfers for Hand Surgery Correlate with Increased Reoperations for Complications.

Wrist, hand, and finger trauma are the most common nonlethal injuries presenting to emergency departments. In Tennessee, lack of available hand care, particularly the need for emergency hand surgery, could be detrimental to patient outcomes. This is a retrospective outcomes study of patients requiring revisional hand surgeries.

Tennessee emergency hand care distributions and disparities: Emergent hand care disparities.

Background: Hand trauma is the most frequently treated injury in emergency departments, but presently there is a crisis of insufficient emergency coverage. This study evaluates the discrepancy of emergent and elective hand care trends based on socioeconomic factors in the state of Tennessee.

Methods: We identified 119 hospitals in Tennessee that contained operating and emergency room facilities.