A paper by Hsia et al. (2023) shows that California emergency department capacity is not keeping up with demand and is increasingly concentrated in fewer facilities. Using data from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information and US Census, the authors find that:
In the prepandemic period (2011-2019), the total population of California increased from 37 638 369 to 39 512 223 (5.0%), then decreased to 39 237 836 in 2021 (0.7%; ). Over the entire study period (2011-2021), the total California population increased by 4.2% . From 2011 to 2019, the annual number of ED visits increased from 12 054 885 to 14 876 653 (23.4%) before decreasing to 12 944 692 in 2021 (−13.0%); from 2011 to 2021, total ED visits increased by 7.4%. From 2011 to 2021, the total number of EDs decreased from 339 to 326 (−3.8%) and the total number of hospital beds decreased from 75 940 to 74 052 (−2.5%), while the number of ED treatment stations in these fewer EDs increased from 7159 to 8667 (21.1%). The number of visits rated as severe with threat also increased, from 2 011 637 in 2011 to 3 375 539 in 2021 (67.8%), while visits rated as minor decreased from 913 712 to 336 071 (−63.2%) over the same period.
Note that the 95% confidence intervals were omitted from above for brevity. Click here to read the full article.