Arizona Daily Star Examines Emergency Department Overcrowding

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 19 Mar 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The Arizona Daily Star on Sunday examined how "[s]trong evidence is mounting that ... overcrowded, overwhelmed and understaffed" emergency departments in Tucson, Ariz., "have reached crisis level, struggling to safely handle the daily load, unable to handle any new strains at all." According to the Daily Star, the "meltdown of emergency care is happening throughout" the U.S., but the "problems appear to be significantly more acute in Southern Arizona than elsewhere." Recent studies have found that:

• Arizona has the longest wait times in the country for emergency care;
  
  
• The state is among the worst nine states at providing emergency care, with poor patient access and extreme shortage of emergency physicians, on-call specialists, nurses and trauma centers;
  
  
• Arizona ED outpatient visits increased by 46% in the last five years, compared with an 8% increase nationwide;
  
  
• The nurse shortage is significantly worse in Arizona, with 681 registered nurses per 100,000 people in the state, compared with 825 per 100,000 people nationwide;
  
  
• The state's shortage of physicians also is worse than the national average, at 219 doctors per 100,000 people, compared with 293 per 100,000 people nationwide; and
  
  
• About 50% of ED patients in Maricopa County are seeking primary care, not emergency care.
  

The Daily Star profiled several patients and their family members who have had difficulty obtaining care in Tucson, including Rachel Sweitzer, who spent eight hours with her husband in an ED waiting room while he complained about pain and difficulty breathing and eventually died after his lungs filled with blood and his heart stopped because of an untreated, severe infection (McClain, Arizona Daily Star, 3/16).

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