AHA survey highlights hospitals' varying ED capacity challenges

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem_news@yahoo.com
Tue, 27 Apr 2004 21:07:16 -0700 (PDT)


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AHA survey highlights hospitals' varying ED capacity challenges

 

April 22, 2004




A new AHA survey on hospital capacity constraints and ambulance diversions
finds inpatient occupancy rates captured at midnight fail to reflect volume
fluctuations by day and time of day and illustrates the difficulty of
anticipating and responding to changes in demand -- which according to the
survey can be extreme. The case studies done by the Lewin Group follow up on
a 2002 national survey by Lewin that found nearly 80% of urban hospital EDs
are at or over capacity, with more than half reporting diversions. The
latest survey looked in depth at 28 hospitals in four communities --
Louisville, KY; Portland, OR; Harrisburg, PA; and El Paso, TX -- to see when
and where capacity constraints occur within the hospital and how diversion
situations develop across a community. The study found capacity constraints
and ambulance diversions continue to be concerns in these communities, with
more than half of the hospitals in each community reporting their EDs at or
over capacity. Though all of the communities experienced some level of
ambulance diversion, diversion hours varied by community, as did the factors
driving the diversions and hospital capacity constraints. Even within a
hospital, the specific capacity issue leading to diversion differed across
the three days studied. Summaries of both the 2004 and 2002 survey results
can be found at http://www.aha.org under "What's New."

 

 
Source: AHA News (www.ahanews.com)


Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service 
UC-Irvine

		
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<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>AHA survey highlights hospitals' varying ED capacity challenges<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3>&nbsp;</FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:date Month="4" Day="22" Year="2004"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>April 22, 2004</FONT></SPAN></st1:date><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR><FONT size=3>A new AHA survey on hospital capacity constraints and ambulance diversions<BR>finds inpatient occupancy rates captured at </FONT></SPAN><st1:time Hour="0" Minute="0"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3>midnight</FONT></SPAN></st1:time><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> fail to reflect volume<BR>fluctuations by day and time of day and illustrates the difficulty of<BR>anticipating and responding to changes in demand -- which according to the<BR>survey can be extreme. The case studies done by the Lewin Group follow up on<BR>a 2002 national survey by Lewin that found nearly 80% of urban hospital EDs<BR>are at or over capacity, with more than half reporting diversions. The<BR>latest survey looked in depth at 28 hospitals in four communities --<BR></SPAN><st1:place><st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Louisville</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Ari!
 al">,
 </SPAN><st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">KY</SPAN></st1:State></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">; </SPAN><st1:place><st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Portland</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, </SPAN><st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">OR</SPAN></st1:State></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">; </SPAN><st1:place><st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Harrisburg</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, </SPAN><st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">PA</SPAN></st1:State></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">; and </SPAN><st1:place><st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">El Paso</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">, </SPAN><st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">TX</SPAN></st1:State></st1:place></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT size=3> -- to see when<BR>and where capacity constraints occur within the hospital and how diversion<BR>situations develop across a
 community. The study found capacity constraints<BR>and ambulance diversions continue to be concerns in these communities, with<BR>more than half of the hospitals in each community reporting their EDs at or<BR>over capacity. Though all of the communities experienced some level of<BR>ambulance diversion, diversion hours varied by community, as did the factors<BR>driving the diversions and hospital capacity constraints. Even within a<BR>hospital, the specific capacity issue leading to diversion differed across<BR>the three days studied. Summaries of both the 2004 and 2002 survey results<BR>can be found at </FONT><A href="http://www.aha.org/" target=_blank><FONT size=3>http://www.aha.org</FONT></A><FONT size=3> under "What's New."<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3>&nbsp;</FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=3>&nbsp;</FONT></o:p></SPAN></P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Source: AHA News (<A href="http://www.ahanews.com/">www.ahanews.com</A>)</SPAN></DIV><BR><BR><DIV><FONT face=arial><FONT size=3><STRONG>Cyrus Shahpar &amp; Brian Potts</STRONG> <BR>Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service <BR>UC-Irvine</FONT></FONT></DIV><p>
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