title: Owning the cost of emergency medicine: beyond 2%.
abstract: This article evaluates current evidence on the cost of emergency care. First, we reviewed data from national data sets and found that aggregate spending on emergency care is 5% to 6% of national health expenditures but could be as high as 10%. These figures are significantly higher than those previously published. Second, we reviewed the literature on economic models of the cost of emergency care and found that the results are inconclusive and incomplete. As an alternative, we discussed activity-based cost accounting and concluded that it is a promising research methodology for emergency medicine. We conclude by advocating for a strategy to demonstrate the value and strategic importance of emergency medicine rather than minimizing its role in national health care costs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI. Electronic address: mlee2@lifespan.org.
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Jeremiah D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Schuur
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI.
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Zink
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000191:economics*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017048:Health Care Costs; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015895:Relative Value Scales; D014481:United States; D016270:United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality