How many Emergency Departments?

DJ-99

I can't seem to find a good answer for how many Emergency Departments there are in the U.S. It seems to be around 4,000, but I see anything from 3,000 to 5,000.

Anybody have a reputable source I could quote that would show this information? Preferably over time, but any recent data would be great.

Thanks for any help.

Ruckus

What do you mean by emergency departments?

Fats

According to page 6 of this study (pdf) done by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, approximately 4,900 in 2006. They don't give a good source other than "according to NCHS estimates," though.

travathian

Ruckus wrote: »

What do you mean by emergency departments?

As in a hospital that has a special department for emergencies. Not all hospitals have EDs, and some hospitals have pseudo satellite EDs in rural areas where people can be triaged and then air vac'd to the main hospital if needed.

You might call and ask someone at your local Dept of Health and Human Services. The joint Commission might know as well.

Ruckus

travathian wrote: »

Ruckus wrote: »

What do you mean by emergency departments?

As in a hospital that has a special department for emergencies. Not all hospitals have EDs, and some hospitals have pseudo satellite EDs in rural areas where people can be triaged and then air vac'd to the main hospital if needed.

You might call and ask someone at your local Dept of Health and Human Services. The joint Commission might know as well.

Ah, here (Canada) we usually just call them Emergency Rooms, even when referring to entire sections of a medical facility.

We also refer to our Ambulance, Police, and Fire services collectively as "Emergency Services", thus compounding my confusion.

The wiki article on ER's says ~1800 in the US in 2009, but I can't confirm the source they cite for that number.

Tomanta

1800 sounds like a ridiculously low estimate for emergency rooms. I've also only referred to them as emergency rooms and was confused as well.

bowen

I'd imagine it's in the ballpark of 3,100 because I'd imagine that you'd want a hospital for every county in the US. Though, some counties don't have a hospital, but ER could also mean urgent care as well.

RUNN1NGMAN

FEMA is probably going to have data on this. They should also have data on the number of trauma centers and what level they are. They're not necessarily going to have it one their website though.

Really, any agency involved in mass casualty planning will have the data.

Feral

Fats wrote: »

According to page 6 of this study (pdf) done by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, approximately 4,900 in 2006. They don't give a good source other than "according to NCHS estimates," though.

NCHS data is reliable; they publish all of their data and it's available for free or cheap, they're open about their methodology, and they're as unbiased as you're possibly going to get.

That said, I looked up that figure, and I'm not sure where they got 4900. This NCHS report (PDF Link) from 2006 puts the number of EDs at 3833.

But that doesn't seem right, either. That is sourced from the American Hospital Association trendwatch chart book 2006. (PDF Link) That chart clearly does not show 3833 EDs.

Searching the AHA site, comes up with a more recent trendwatch chart book for 2009 using 2008 data (PDF Link) puts the number at 4613.

I think 4613 is going to be the most reliable number you're going to get.

Feral

BTW, regarding the different terminology:

"Emergency room" isn't used so much anymore (at least officially) partly because an emergency department technically has multiple rooms, and partly because... well, it's a department, like cardiology or radiology.

"Urgent care" is specifically not an emergency department. There may be some overlap - an emergency department may also have an area they call their "urgent care" center, and they route non-life-threatening conditions up to urgent care at triage. But in general, urgent care centers don't count as EDs.

"Trauma center" refers to a specific type of service provided in an ED. Not all EDs have trauma centers.

FEMA was a good idea for a source, I did a brief search though and didn't find anything. If the AHA stat I provided above doesn't work for Fats, FEMA might have something buried in a more thorough search.

RUNN1NGMAN

For the FEMA data, you may need to do a FOIA request.

GothicLargo

Here's the official terminology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_center

The American College of Surgeons certifies trauma facilities on a scale of 1 to 4 in terms of decreasing capacities.

Level 1
Large research hospitals. Examples: Mayo Clinic, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

Level 2
Hospitals with non-emergency surgical and post operation care capacities. This is the colloquial use of the term "ER".

Level 3
Hospitals with trauma capacities that transfer patients to higher facilities after triage. New facilities built to this level of care are often called trauma centers.

Level 4
Facilities that are basically 24 hour clinics; often labeled Urgent Care Centers. Skill wise they're not much different from any other GP office except that they're open all the time.

Feral

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

For the FEMA data, you may need to do a FOIA request.

My concern with FEMA data is that they may only have a list of EDs that cooperate in the national emergency response framework (NRF) and if a hospital hasn't agreed to cooperate or hasn't gotten their systems compliant with FEMA, then FEMA won't list them in their stats.