As the demand for medical care in the US continues to surge, nationwide hospitals are struggling to keep up. Americans visited the emergency department 139.8 million times in 2024 – 42.7 visits per 100 people. High demand paired with budget and staffing issues means that many hospitals across the US are working to keep their heads above water. But where is struggling the most?
Interested to find out, the experts at per diem healthcare staffing platform Nursa analysed overcrowding, staffing levels, and how sick the average patient is for every US state to reveal the states with the most overwhelmed hospitals.
Study highlights:
- Maryland has the most overwhelmed hospitals in the US, scoring 9.12 out of 10
- Wyoming hospitals are the least overwhelmed, scoring just 2.34 out of 10
- California has the worst nurse shortage, with 34,380
- Washington has the fewest hospital beds per 10k population – 15.5 beds
- Alaskans spend the longest in the hospital, averaging 7 days
The states with the most overwhelmed hospitals
Full dataset available here…