Poor primary care capacity packs ERs
The emergency rooms of America are increasingly serving as backup for acute-care doctors. While general practitioners historically were the first point of contact for acute care, that's less the case now. Only 42 percent of the acute care visits are to patients' personal physicians, according to a recently published article in the journal Health Affairs. As an alternative, acute care patients visit ERs (28 percent), specialists (20 percent) or outpatient departments (7 percent). FierceHealthcare
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