As emergency room visits increased 31 percent across Massachusetts between 2005 and 2015, the availability of specialists to treat these patients declined, according to a recent study.
A new study published last week in Annals of Emergency Medicine found that increasing patient volume in emergency rooms has caused stress on the system overall. From 2005 to 2015, emergency department visits increased on average from 32,025 to 42,000, and accompanying that was a drop in the availability of specialists.
Availability of surgeons dropped from 98 percent to 83 percent, and access to 24/7 psychiatry fell from 56 percent to 33 percent. There was also a significant decline in the availability of orthopedic surgeons, pediatricians and plastic surgeons. The proportion of emergency departments reporting having patients primarily cared for in the hallway also increased from 70 percent to 89 percent.
