What value do specialty emergency departments (EDs) provide for healthcare delivery?
A new study asked this question to patients presenting in EDs with eye, ear, nose, and throat complaints and found that the patients placed a value on direct specialist care in the ED as opposed to more general emergency room care.
Additionally, the patients were willing to pay for it, at least theoretically, said Matthew Naunheim, MD, MBA, author of the study and chief resident in the department of otolaryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School in Boston.