ArticlePloS one2021
National trends in emergency department closures, mergers, and utilization, 2005-2015.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emergency Department Closures and Patient Outcomes: Scoping Review of Impacts on Care, Equity, and System Performance.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Waiting room and hallway care for older adults: a qualitative study with emergency nurses and technicians.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Increased Time to Provider for Patients With a Non-English Language Preference: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2025Article
- Clinical Practice Patterns of the Emergency Physician Workforce Before and After Attrition.Annals of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring diagnostic stewardship in the emergency department evaluation of pediatric abdominal pain in a statewide quality collaborative.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring access to critical health services for older adults in rural America from 1990 to 2020.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025Article
- The epidemiology of dying within 48 hours of presentation to emergency departments: a retrospective cohort study of older people across Australia and New Zealand.Age and ageing · 2024Article
- An Automated System for Physician Trainee Procedure Logging via Electronic Health Records.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Emergency Department Care for Children During the 2022 Viral Respiratory Illness Surge.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Frequency and Trends of Pre-Pandemic Surge Periods in U.S. Emergency Departments, 2006-2019.Critical care explorations · 2023Article
- Sociodemographic Disparities in Queue Jumping for Emergency Department Care.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Patterns in Patient Encounters and Emergency Department Capacity in California, 2011-2021.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- The 2013 to 2019 Emergency Medicine Workforce: Clinician Entry and Attrition Across the US Geography.Annals of emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Monthly Rates of Patients Who Left Before Accessing Care in US Emergency Departments, 2017-2021.JAMA network open · 2022Article
- Burn related injuries: a nationwide analysis of adult inter-facility transfers over a six-year period in the United States.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Patients who leave the Emergency Department without being seen. Has COVID-19 affected this phenomenon?Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2022Article
- Evaluation of the American Hospital Association Annual Survey for health services research in emergency medicine.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesTo describe nationwide hospital-based emergency department (ED) closures and mergers, as well as the utilization of emergency departments and inpatient beds, over time and across varying geographic areas in the United States.
methodsObservational analysis of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey from 2005 to 2015. Primary outcomes were hospital-based ED closure and merger. Secondary outcomes were yearly ED visits per hospital-based ED and yearly hospital admissions per hospital bed.
resultsThe total number of hospital-based EDs decreased from 4,500 in 2005 to 4,460 in 2015, with 200 closures, 138 mergers, and 160 new hospital-based EDs. While yearly ED visits per hospital-based ED exhibited a 28.6% relative increase (from 25,083 to 32,248), yearly hospital admissions per hospital bed had a 3.3% relative increase (from 45.4 to 43.9) from 2005 to 2015. The number of hospital admissions and hospital beds did not change significantly in urban areas and declined in rural areas. ED visits grew more uniformly across urban and rural areas.
conclusionsThe number of hospital-based ED closures is small when accounting for mergers, but occurs as many more patients are presenting to a stable number of EDs in larger health systems, though rural areas may differentially affected. EDs were managing accelerating patient volumes alongside stagnant inpatient bed capacity.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.