A new study by the University of California, San Francisco found that emergency departments in California have struggled to keep up with patient demand over the last decade.
The study found that emergency department visits grew over the past 10 years – by about seven-and-a-half percent — but the number of emergency departments fell by nearly four percent in that same timeframe.
Unlike other hospital departments, emergency departments cannot refuse care to patients who are unable to pay, making them a safety net for uninsured patients. That means those without insurance, primarily low income patients, are most likely to be impacted by longer wait times.
In 2022, California was the state with the ninth-highest waiting times in emergency departments, according to the study.
Renee Hsia, one of the study's co-authors, said: "To efficiently and equitably address [emergency department] crowding and improve overall care, policy makers and health care administrators should work to increase ED capacity, while also making thoughtful decisions about where and how to best allocate resources."
