The Affordable Care Act and hospital initiatives to provide faster, more convenient emergency services have spurred a new wave of emergency department construction in the Dayton, Ohio, area according to an article on the Insurance News Net website.

The largest hospital systems in the area are building new, freestanding emergency departments and upgrading and expanding those attached to hospitals, the article said.

The networks are adding emergency department capacity, in part, to meet the pent-up demand of newly insured residents who have postponed treatment because they couldn't afford it, Roy Chew, president of Kettering Medical Center, said in the article.

Cutting down on wait times and providing better, faster service for residents outside urban centers has also been a driving force behind the construction of freestanding emergency centers, the article said.

"One of the things that patients always tell us is that their satisfaction is very significant in a freestanding ED because the entire treatment experience is more patient friendly," said Tom Parker, Premier health network's senior vice president, service lines. 

"From the moment you pull in and park, it's a shorter distance to walk, it's easier to navigate (than a big hospital) and you have shorter wait times."

Read the article.