Acute Care Topics

Acute care is the type of care a patient receives immediately following an accident,other trauma and an episode of serious illness or surgery. The term can also refer to the regular administration of complex critical therapies such as kidney dialysis and chemotherapy. It is a diverse discipline with functions that cannot be carried out in a regular medical office setting. In the emergency room, for example, it stabilizes a patient sufficiently, in order that he may progress to further care or be released without further treatment.

Law

• The Emergency Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals and paramedic ambulance transportation companies to provide acute care emergency treatment to patients, regardless of their immigration status or ability to pay. This law was enacted in 1986 to combat refusal of treatment and dumping, discharging or transferring of uninsured or Medicaid patients prior to rendering appropriate stabilizing treatments. This was a practice becoming increasingly common. EMTALA remains controversial, since it is an unfunded federal mandate, which places additional burdens on already overstretched acute care facilities.

Useage

• According to the 2006 survey by National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care, there were more than 119 million visits to the emergency rooms. Only 13 percent of these visits resulted in hospital admission, while the large majority were dealt with using acute care diagnosis and treatment, followed by release. The large number of emergency room visits is attributed to visits by patients who cannot afford health care insurance and use emergency rooms for non-emergencies. Some people with health insurance also use emergency rooms as a source of primary care, since they are open 24 hours a day and can provide diagnosis and treatment at times that fit their schedules, when their primary care physicians are unavailable.

Most Common Reasons

• The 2006 survey by National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care cited the most common reasons for emergency and acute care diagnosis and treatment were chest pain, stomach pain, head pain, fevers, accidents and injuries.

Future

• Acute care visits are increasing annually and causing severe overcrowding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is considering the future of acute care services and has come up with recommendations to improve efficiency and relieve current stresses on services. These recommendations include: adoption of comprehensive information and communications systems and technologies; reimbursement for uncompensated care; improved conditions of service for professional service providers; and improved emergency preparedness.