Emergency Capacity In California: A Look At More Recent Trends.

The dynamic environment in California is changing the world of hospitals at an increasing pace. The paper by Glenn Melnick and colleagues concludes that there is a "ro- bust market" for emergency department (ED) services in California. The paper's economic conclusions are drawn from averages and unverified assumptions about ED patients who are admitted as inpatients. In addition to the limitations imposed by evaluating only capacity, the study did not acknowledge or take into account new ED nurse-to-patient ratios, sky- rocketing costs of on-call physicians, seismic compliance costs, technology, or a host of other separate but vital variables that must be evaluated and integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]