Are Smaller Emergency Departments More Prone to Volume Variability?

Introduction: Daily patient volume in emergency departments (ED) varies considerably between days and sites. Although studies have attempted to define "high-volume" days, no standard definition exists. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the frequency of high-volume days, by any definition, is related to the size of an ED.

Predicting a Need for Financial Assistance in Emergency Department Care.

Identifying patients with a low likelihood of paying their bill serves the needs of patients and providers alike: aligning government programs with their target beneficiaries while minimizing patient frustration and reducing waste among emergency physicians by streamlining the billing process. The goal of this study was to predict the likelihood of patients paying the balance of their emergency department visit bill within 90 days of receipt. Three machine learning methodologies were applied to predict payment: logistic regression, decision tree, and random forest.

Making the Case for Proactive Strategies to Alleviate Homelessness: A Systems Approach.

Homelessness is a complex public health issue that affects some of the most vulnerable populations in the United States. This study takes a holistic approach to better understand and analyze the multiple factors and their interconnections that contribute to the complexity of this problem. A systems analysis was conducted by utilizing the system dynamics method, which allows analyzing and comparing trends and behavior of system outcomes for different "what if" scenarios, interventions, and policy implications.

Decreased hospital admissions through emergency departments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Study Objective: Emergency Department (ED) visits decreased significantly in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. A troubling proportion of this decrease was among patients who typically would have been admitted to the hospital, suggesting substantial deferment of care. We sought to describe and characterize the impact of COVID-19 on hospital admissions through EDs, with a specific focus on diagnosis group, age, gender, and insurance coverage.

Can improved specialty access moderate emergency department overuse?: Effect of neurology appointment delays on ED visits.

Background: Delayed access to specialty care may increase inappropriate emergency department (ED) visits. However, the details of this relationship after referral to a specialist are unknown.

Methods: The correlations in an academic medical center between time to new neurology patient appointments and nonurgent ED use are explored in this study.