The Massachusetts Urgent Care Association, an industry group, has stated that the Department of Public Health (DPH) is taking an unprecedented step to ensure patients are aware of the resources available to them beyond emergency rooms. Urgent cares, which are equipped to handle less severe medical emergencies, can handle common ailments such as coughs, colds, fevers, and sutures, and have an average turnaround time of an hour. They also cost a fifth as much as an emergency department. Approximately 40 to 50 percent of an emergency department’s patient volume could be effectively treated at an urgent care.
The DPH described this initiative as an effort to address the busier summer months and reduce overcrowding in emergency departments. However, stakeholders believe that the move is partly driven by the ongoing issues at Steward Health Care, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital system, which has been unable to maintain specialized care at its hospitals. This has put stress on nearby hospitals, according to health officials and reporting from The Globe. Steward declared bankruptcy in May, and it remains unclear how this will affect its seven active hospitals in the state.
If any of Steward’s emergency departments were to stop operating, the influx of displaced patients could be devastating for the region’s hospitals. Dr. Joseph Kopp, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Faulkner Hospital, has stated that overcrowding in emergency departments has led to hallways lined with beds, agitated patients who sometimes become violent, and healthcare workers pushed to their limits. Patients who linger in emergency departments while waiting for a transfer to another department or facility, called boarders, are increasingly common in Massachusetts hospitals.
A point-in-time count of emergency departments gathered on January 15, 2024, showed that 54 percent of all the state’s emergency department beds were occupied by boarders, among the most on a single day since as far back as 2015. Among those waiting were 229 people who needed medical or surgical care and 171 needing behavioral health care. At times, these waits can be deadly, as boarding patients have worse outcomes, are more likely to fall victim to medical errors, and are more likely to die from avoidable complications.
