Emergency Department Utilization
Emergency department utilizaiton or overutilization is a growing concern for health care providers. Many factors have combined over the last decade and a half to dramatically increase the utilization rates of hospitals on a national level. Although no one factor is the silver bullet that explains these disturbing trends several studies and resources are available to help better understand the underling problems with todays emergency care framework.
Although solutions like the The Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDIE) exist to solve this problems for hospitals a better understanding of the problems is always a needed first step. The following are some article, websites, and research papers that address this growing trend.
July 13, 2008 - Repeat 'super users' are swamping the ER
Carol Ann Campbell of The Star-Ledger (Camden, New Jersey) has written a great article talking about ED overutilization from patients who instead of going to a general practice physician go to the ER. There are many reasons why this happens and the article has some great insites.
The article can be found here
March 2008 - Medical Emergency Department Utilization Patterns Among Uninsured Patients With Psychiatric Disorders
OBJECTIVE: This study examined medical emergency department utilization for patterns among uninsured patients with psychiatric disorders. METHODS: Billing records of 15,672 uninsured adult patients treated in the emergency department of an academic medical center in southeast Texas over a 12-month period were analyzed for information on demographic characteristics, diagnosis, number of emergency department visits, and hospitalization. RESULTS: Overall, 11.8% of the population was diagnosed as having at least one psychiatric disorder during an emergency department visit. Patients with psychiatric disorders had an increased risk of having multiple emergency department visits and hospitalization compared with patients without psychiatric disorders. The risk of multiple emergency department visits was particularly high for patients with either bipolar disorder or psychotic disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Uninsured patients with psychiatric disorders appear to be heavy users of medical emergency department services. These findings may be helpful in developing more efficient strategies to serve the mental health needs of the uninsured.
The paper can be found here. (Subscription Required)