Emergency department (ED) visits reached nearly 146 million in the US in 2016. EDs are increasingly becoming a critical source of care for safety-net populations, those who don’t have access to other care, and those who need advanced technologies that EDs have. However, an increase in ED visit rates leads to boarding, overcrowding, long wait times and lengths of stay, and even violence. This whitepaper provides an in-depth look at why ED utilization is rising, how it harms patient care, and most importantly—how providers across the nation are addressing the issue.
