DMM 649 Hospital Emergency Department Ten Years Future Response
ANSWER
In the described future scenario of the hospital emergency department ten years from now, several trends and challenges are anticipated to shape its evolution. Here’s a summary of the key points outlined in the provided text:
- Increased Utilization of Emergency Services: The emergency department is expected to experience extensive use of its services, driven by factors such as advancements in medical technology, improved diagnostic tests, and evolving management styles for various medical conditions. This growth in utilization has been observed in the past and is likely to continue in the future.
- Rising Healthcare Expenditure: The text highlights that healthcare expenditure has been steadily increasing over the years. The budget allocated to the healthcare sector, including hospital-based emergency departments, is expected to be larger in the future. This emphasizes the need for proactive planning by policymakers to allocate resources effectively.
- Emergence of New Diseases: The emergence of diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, renal failure, and diabetes is noted as a driving factor for increased responsibilities of trained emergency physicians. These complex and chronic conditions require specialized care and management within emergency departments.
- Insurance Trends and Uninsured Patients: The increase in the population of uninsured individuals is expected to put additional strain on emergency departments. With more uninsured people seeking medical help, the budgetary demands for emergency care are projected to rise significantly.
- Role of Municipal Emergency Management: To address the growing challenges in emergency care, the text suggests that healthcare emergency management could be categorized under municipal emergency departments. This decentralized approach aims to spread the burden across various stakeholders and minimize the need for hospital-based admissions. This could involve strategies like home-to-home visits for care and mitigation.
- Continuous Planning for Emergencies: The text emphasizes the need for continuous planning in healthcare emergency management due to the increasing occurrence of disease epidemics, natural disasters, and human-made emergencies. Such planning would help manage large numbers of affected individuals effectively.
- Cost Efficiency: Shifting the focus to municipal emergency management is expected to lead to cost savings, as it reduces the need for expensive hospital-based admissions. This aligns with efforts to manage healthcare expenses efficiently.
Please note that this future scenario is speculative and based on the provided text. Actual developments over the next ten years may be influenced by a wide range of factors, including technological advancements, changes in healthcare policies, economic conditions, and more.
QUESTION
Description
Hospital Emergency Department Ten Years Future
The emergency department evolved in response to the need for hospital-based medicine after World War II. In the past, these departments provided both fugitive and acute care, but their roles increased with the increasing political, clinical and political needs (A. L. Kellermann & Martinez, 2011). Since 1970 up to date, the role of emergency departments has seized to be the role of a few organizations and trained emergency physicians. Due to the emergence of epidemics such as cancer, HIV Aids, renal failure, and diabetes, the trained physicians have an essential responsibility of providing the necessary care (Adaji et al., 2018).
The amount of money spent on healthcare has increased, and this is attributed to hospital-based emergency departments. To look into the future, an analysis of the past experiences is crucial. In the past sixty years, the spending budget in the health care industry has been known to rise by 2%-2.3% average yearly. The healthcare expenditure in the year 1990 was $724 billion, which represented 12% of America’s Gross Domestic Product. In the year 2010, this amount rose to $2.6 trillion, which represented 17.9 % of the nation’s GDP. The future budget in the health care sector, which is inclusive of hospital-based emergency, is expected to be larger and this requires policymakers to plan ahead of time and find the necessary resources (Petinaux, 2008).
The ten year future for emergency-based departments will be characterized by extensive use of emergency services. This is evident in the growth of utilization, which has been observed in the past years, with 2001 to 2008 emergency department use being double the size of American population growth. Modern practice mechanisms have been put installed in places, which have led to the attraction of the affected individuals coming to seek medical help from the emergency departments. Some of the latest technologies include current improved scanning equipment, new diagnostic tests, as well as new management styles for ailments and conditions. The enhancement in service provision guarantees future steady growth in budgetary allocation needs (Adaji et al., 2018).
The insurance trends are also alarming with research conducted in 2018 showing that the population of uninsured people had risen to 15.5% as opposed to the two previous year’s rise, which was at 12.7%. This means that many uninsured people are likely to visit the emergency departments in need of help, which further strains the budgetary allocation for the next ten years (Adaji et al., 2018). Therefore, fiscal appropriations for such activities will significantly rise in the future.
Healthcare Emergency Management: The Role of Municipals
Healthcare emergency management will be successful when categorized under the municipal emergency department. This is because the burden will be spread across many key players, which will make it effective. Emergencies are arising daily, due to disease epidemics, natural or weather-related catastrophes, and human-made activities. These emergencies affect large numbers of people, and the mitigation processes do not require a short term planning process but rather a continuous planning mechanism. To take care of the many people affected, home-to-home visits will lead to decongesting hospital facilities. Additionally, the number of funds spent will be lower because there will be no hospital-based admissions, which are expensive (Adaji et al., 2018).
References
Adaji, A., Melin, G. J., Campbell, R. L., Lohse, C. M., Westphal, J. J., & Katzelnick, D. J. (2018). Patient-Centered Medical Home Membership Is Associated With Decreased Hospital Admissions For Emergency Department Behavioral Health Patients. Population Health Management, 21(3), 172-179.
Petinaux, B. (2008). Financial Burden of Emergency Preparedness on an Urban, Academic Hospital. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 24(5), 372-375.