Changes in Emergency Department Access Between 2001 and 2005 Among General and Vulnerable Populations

dc.contributor.authorShen, Yu-Chu
dc.contributor.authorHsia, Renee Y.
dc.contributor.corporateNaval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
dc.contributor.departmentBusiness & Public Policy (GSBPP)
dc.date.accessioned2016-08-22T22:00:03Z
dc.date.available2016-08-22T22:00:03Z
dc.date.issued2010-08
dc.descriptionThe article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH. 2009.175828
dc.description.abstractObjectives. We analyzed how ease of geographic access to emergency departments (EDs), defined as driving time to the closest ED, changed between 2001 and 2005, and whether access deterioration was more likely to occur in vulnerable communities. Methods. We classified communities on the basis of American Hospital Association and Census data into 3 categories according to driving time to the nearest ED: no increase, less than a 10-minute increase, and a 10-minute or more increase. We estimated a multinomial logit model to examine the relative risk ratio (RRR) of various community characteristics. Results. More than 95% of communities experienced no ED access deterioration. However, 11.4 million people experienced increased driving time to their nearest ED. Low-income communities had a higher risk of facing deteriorating access compared with high-income communities (urban: RRR=3.67; P<.01; rural: RRR=1.75; P<.10), and communities with higher shares of Hispanics also had higher risks of facing declines (urban: RRR=3.41; P<.10; rural: RRR=2.67; P<.01). Conclusions. Deteriorating access to EDs is more likely to occur in communities with economic hardship and high shares of Hispanic populations. The uneven access to critical services warrants increased attention from policymaking bodies.
dc.description.funderRobert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization initiative (grant 63974)en_US
dc.description.funderRobert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Physician Faculty Scholars Program and the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources, University of California, San Francisco Clinical and Translational Science (KL2 RR024130)en_US
dc.identifier.citationShen, Yu-Chu, and Renee Y. Hsia. "Changes in emergency department access between 2001 and 2005 among general and vulnerable populations." American journal of public health 100.8 (2010): 1462-1469.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10945/49695
dc.rightsThis publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.en_US
dc.titleChanges in Emergency Department Access Between 2001 and 2005 Among General and Vulnerable Populationsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dspace.entity.typePublication
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