Hospitals in Maryland are becoming more crowded, according to data from the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS). And that problem may only get worse as it spills beyond densely populated areas and into more rural ones.
From 2014 to 2014, MIEMSS found that Maryland hospitals issued 34% more yellow and red alerts when their emergency departments were overcrowded or had no beds available. MIEMSS used the County Hospital Alert Tracking System, which monitors the status of hospitals throughout Maryland, to get this data.
John Donohue, chief of field operations for MIEMSS, which is an independent state agency, explained how the alerts work as a guideline more than as a hard and fast rule.
“The guidelines given to hospitals on when to issue these alerts are very soft. You can’t tell a hospital when they’re busy and not busy,” he said. “These alerts are a method for us to help hospitals ensure that each patient is cared for better or at least receives care more quickly.”
Naturally, the hospitals in more densely populated areas, such as Baltimore or the state’s capital, will see more patients. But those in smaller towns are now beginning to see the overflow from urban hospitals, who often have to turn patients away.
For instance, Northwest Hospital in Randallstown, 20 miles away from Baltimore’s center, had 87 alerts in the first three months of 2015 and 339 total for 2014. That’s a lot for a small hospital when comparing Northwest to a larger hospital, like second-place Sinai, which had 50 fewer alerts in 2014.
This may also impact how Americans choose their health insurance plans or Medicare supplements, even for those in rural areas. Many of the nation’s 2.2 million farms are in rural areas where healthcare services are already difficult to access; crowded ERs with overflow from more populated areas could make that even more difficult for farmers and others who live far away from urban and suburban hospitals.
As for residents of the Free State, not only are they spending more time in waiting rooms, but they’re also not getting as high quality care as they could be getting.
According to a report last month from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, no Maryland hospitals — not even Johns Hopkins Hospital — received a top score of five stars for care based on patient surveys.
In fact, just two hospitals out of the 43 in the state earned four-star rankings: Hopkins Hospital and Mercy Medical Center.
Also surprisingly shut out of the five-star category nationwide were the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, Massachusetts General in Boston and the Cleveland Clinic, which all earned four stars despite appearing on the U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals list.