With hospital emergency room use in Maine significantly higher than the national average, the state is planning to commission a study to determine why. A special task force is expected to meet today for the first time to begin planning the details of the study. A description of the problem developed for the study shows that Maine’s rate of emergency department use per 1,000 residents increased by nearly 20 percent between 1999 and 2005. Emergency department use in Maine was 27 percent above the national average in 1999 and is now 43 percent higher than the national average. Trish Riley, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance, said in an interview Tuesday that inappropriate and unnecessary use of emergency room services drives up health care spending in Maine and may reflect less-than-optimal health care from primary care providers. The study is intended to identify problems within the health care system that drive people to seek routine medical care in emergency departments, she said. The new study will analyze emergency department use at all Maine hospitals and by all patients, regardless of who pays — or doesn’t pay — the bill. Data will be drawn from a statewide hospital reporting database, which collects information that has been stripped of patient identification. Riley said the study is likely to have implications for hospitals and primary care providers. While there is no question that Maine’s largest emergency departments are overwhelmed with patients seeking care, she said, many of those patients could have avoided a medical crisis if they had gotten better health care from their regular providers or if they had access to non emergency care and advice during nighttime hours.
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http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=167202&zoneid=500
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