Contributing writer ShiftFrequency
April 22 2014 ~ The American College of Emergency Physicians released a new report card detailing the condition of California’s emergency care. Unfortunately, the report shows that the state has many areas in need of serious improvement.
Lack of Emergency Rooms
In comparison with the rest of the country, California has the lowest number of emergency rooms at 6.7 for every one million people. While the number of emergency rooms around the state has decreased by 11 percent, that’s not stopping people from going to them. Unfortunately, the cuts are coming at a time when total emergency room visits increased by 10 percent. As more people try to use fewer resources available to them, patient care suffers. In the state, In fact the average time from arrival at an emergency room to departure is more than five and a half hours.
Lack of Inpatient Psychiatric Beds
The report states that, for every 100,000 residents in the state, there are 18 psychiatric beds. In the United States, the average is 29. As a result of the lack of beds, many patients who need psychiatric care end up staying in the emergency room. Once there, patients can get stuck for days — or even weeks — as they await an open spot in one of the psychiatric hospitals.