Article Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "pk": 49118,
    "title": "US Emergency Department Use and Operations Amid Natural Disasters: A Narrative Review",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "<p>In the United States from 2014-2024, an average of 18.2 national disasters per year caused over a billion dollars in inflation-adjusted damage, compared with 3.3 national disasters per year during the 1980s. The increased frequency and intensity of severe weather phenomena—attributed by climate science experts to climate change—have raised concerns about national emergency preparedness. One aspect of emergency preparedness is the functioning of emergency departments (ED). In this narrative review, we examine patterns of ED use and operations amid natural disasters in the US, with a special focus on vulnerable populations. The review highlights studies comparing ED use patterns between periods of disaster and non-disaster for specific disaster types, including hurricanes, wildfires, floods, winter storms, and earthquakes, as well as studies that identify disaster-mediated changes in ED visits among specific populations, including the elderly, individuals experiencing homelessness, children and youth with special health care needs, and individuals with chronic medical and psychiatric conditions. Finally, we highlight the challenges posed to EDs by these disasters, including crowding, resource scarcity, and operational strain, and proposed steps to strengthen ED preparedness for climate-related disasters.</p>",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0",
        "short_name": "CC BY 4.0",
        "text": "Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.",
        "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Emergency Medicine"
        },
        {
            "word": "emergency department"
        },
        {
            "word": "Hospital emergency service"
        },
        {
            "word": "Disaster Planning"
        },
        {
            "word": "natural disasters"
        },
        {
            "word": "Weather"
        },
        {
            "word": "climate change"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Disaster Medicine/ Emergency Medical Services",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5hg340cq",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Atrik",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Patel",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Ashley",
            "middle_name": "A.",
            "last_name": "Foster",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of California, San Francisco, Department of Emergency Medicine, San Francisco, California",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Erica",
            "middle_name": "Y.",
            "last_name": "Popovsky",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Chicago, Illinois",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Andrea",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Fawcett",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Department of Clinical and Organizational Development, Chicago, Illinois",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Jennifer",
            "middle_name": "A.",
            "last_name": "Hoffmann",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Chicago, Illinois",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": "2025-07-25T10:40:53-07:00",
    "date_accepted": "2025-11-16T14:36:35.123000-08:00",
    "date_published": "2026-02-22T17:26:00-08:00",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/westjem/article/49118/galley/49068/download/"
        }
    ]
}