The state's system for securing on-call emergency department specialist coverage remains costly, complex, and on the edge, due to a shortage of specialists, payment concerns, and liability questions.

This Health Affairs article by Weinick, Burns, and Mehrotra finds that up to 27% of hospital ED visits are not emergencies and could take place at less expensive urgent care centers and retail clinics.

California's 512 acute care hospitals cared for 3 million inpatients and 42 million outpatients in 2007. This report examines these hospitals in terms of their bed supply and capacity, geographic distribution, ownership type, utilization, and financial health.

When paramedics encounter a patient in cardiac arrest, they must decide whether to attempt resuscitation. This issue brief looks at the results of a change in EMS policy in Los Angeles County that clarifies decisionmaking for paramedics and allows for family input.

Telepsychiatry is used in some emergency departments to make the process of evaluating and treating patients with mental health issues more efficient. This paper examines seven ED telepsychiatry programs in terms of structure, financing, and challenges.

This issue brief tallies freestanding emergency departments (FEDs), inventories their practices, summarizes their regulation by federal and state governments, and discusses California's FED environment.

This issue brief provides an overview of the extent and impact of ambulance diversion in California, and offers strategies for communities that want to reduce or eliminate it.

Although there are fewer emergency departments (EDs) in California hospitals, some hospitals have expanded their EDs. This issue brief analyzes trends in the use and capacity of the state's hospital-based EDs.

This snapshot documents the extent to which uninsured and insured Californians use the ED for preventable dental conditions such as untreated cavities, dental abscesses, and periodontal disease.

This briefing examined ED use in California for preventable dental conditions, and looked at other states' efforts to help young children, pregnant women, and people with developmental disabilities obtain access to dental care.

This briefing discussed how six states — California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Texas — are using regulatory, licensing, and legal tools to promote, structure, or limit retail clinics.

Meeting upcoming earthquake safety deadlines may be problematic for as much as half of California's at-risk health care infrastructure. Background and options are discussed in this publication, the first in a series for policymakers.

In October 2007, five major fires raged in San Diego County, causing evacuation of more than 500,000 people, millions of dollars in damage, and significant disruption to the county's health care system. This report assesses how well the local hospitals responded to the crisis.

This issue brief presents the results of a survey that finds that most California hospitals are using emergency department tracking systems, but with varying levels of satisfaction and success.

This snapshot suggests that increasingly, Californians are trying to control medical costs by neglecting care and asking for cheaper medications, leading to more hospitalizations and emergency department use.