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Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic

OBJECTIVE: Unscheduled low‐acuity care options are on the rise and are often expected to reduce emergency department (ED) visits. We opened an ED‐staffed walk‐in clinic (WIC) as an alternative care location for low‐acuity patients at a time when ED visits exceeded facility capacity and the impending...

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Autores principales: Kurian, Divya, Sundaram, Vandana, Naidich, Anna Graber, Shah, Shreya A., Ramberger, Daniel, Khan, Saud, Ravi, Shashank, Patel, Sunny, Ribeira, Ryan, Brown, Ian, Wagner, Alexei, Gharahbhagian, Laleh, Miller, Kate, Shen, Sam, Yiadom, Maame Yaa A. B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10361543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37484497
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/emp2.13011
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author Kurian, Divya
Sundaram, Vandana
Naidich, Anna Graber
Shah, Shreya A.
Ramberger, Daniel
Khan, Saud
Ravi, Shashank
Patel, Sunny
Ribeira, Ryan
Brown, Ian
Wagner, Alexei
Gharahbhagian, Laleh
Miller, Kate
Shen, Sam
Yiadom, Maame Yaa A. B.
author_facet Kurian, Divya
Sundaram, Vandana
Naidich, Anna Graber
Shah, Shreya A.
Ramberger, Daniel
Khan, Saud
Ravi, Shashank
Patel, Sunny
Ribeira, Ryan
Brown, Ian
Wagner, Alexei
Gharahbhagian, Laleh
Miller, Kate
Shen, Sam
Yiadom, Maame Yaa A. B.
author_sort Kurian, Divya
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Unscheduled low‐acuity care options are on the rise and are often expected to reduce emergency department (ED) visits. We opened an ED‐staffed walk‐in clinic (WIC) as an alternative care location for low‐acuity patients at a time when ED visits exceeded facility capacity and the impending flu season was anticipated to increase visits further, and we assessed whether low‐acuity ED patient visits decreased after opening the WIC. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we compared patient and clinical visit characteristics of the ED and WIC patients and conducted interrupted time‐series analyses to quantify the impact of the WIC on low‐acuity ED patient visit volume and the trend. RESULTS: There were 27,211 low‐acuity ED visits (22.7% of total ED visits), and 7,058 patients seen in the WIC from February 26, 2018, to November 17, 2019. Low‐acuity patient visits in the ED reduced significantly immediately after the WIC opened (P = 0.01). In the subsequent months, however, patient volume trended back to pre‐WIC volumes such that there was no significant impact at 6, 9, or 12 months (P = 0.07). Had WIC patients been seen in the main ED, low‐acuity volume would have been 27% of the total volume rather than the 22.7% that was observed. CONCLUSION: The WIC did not result in a sustained reduction in low‐acuity patients in the main ED. However, it enabled emergency staff to see low‐acuity patients in a lower resource setting during times when ED capacity was limited.
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spelling pubmed-103615432023-07-22 Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic Kurian, Divya Sundaram, Vandana Naidich, Anna Graber Shah, Shreya A. Ramberger, Daniel Khan, Saud Ravi, Shashank Patel, Sunny Ribeira, Ryan Brown, Ian Wagner, Alexei Gharahbhagian, Laleh Miller, Kate Shen, Sam Yiadom, Maame Yaa A. B. J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open The Practice of Emergency Medicine OBJECTIVE: Unscheduled low‐acuity care options are on the rise and are often expected to reduce emergency department (ED) visits. We opened an ED‐staffed walk‐in clinic (WIC) as an alternative care location for low‐acuity patients at a time when ED visits exceeded facility capacity and the impending flu season was anticipated to increase visits further, and we assessed whether low‐acuity ED patient visits decreased after opening the WIC. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we compared patient and clinical visit characteristics of the ED and WIC patients and conducted interrupted time‐series analyses to quantify the impact of the WIC on low‐acuity ED patient visit volume and the trend. RESULTS: There were 27,211 low‐acuity ED visits (22.7% of total ED visits), and 7,058 patients seen in the WIC from February 26, 2018, to November 17, 2019. Low‐acuity patient visits in the ED reduced significantly immediately after the WIC opened (P = 0.01). In the subsequent months, however, patient volume trended back to pre‐WIC volumes such that there was no significant impact at 6, 9, or 12 months (P = 0.07). Had WIC patients been seen in the main ED, low‐acuity volume would have been 27% of the total volume rather than the 22.7% that was observed. CONCLUSION: The WIC did not result in a sustained reduction in low‐acuity patients in the main ED. However, it enabled emergency staff to see low‐acuity patients in a lower resource setting during times when ED capacity was limited. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10361543/ /pubmed/37484497 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/emp2.13011 Text en © 2023 The Authors. JACEP Open published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Emergency Physicians. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle The Practice of Emergency Medicine
Kurian, Divya
Sundaram, Vandana
Naidich, Anna Graber
Shah, Shreya A.
Ramberger, Daniel
Khan, Saud
Ravi, Shashank
Patel, Sunny
Ribeira, Ryan
Brown, Ian
Wagner, Alexei
Gharahbhagian, Laleh
Miller, Kate
Shen, Sam
Yiadom, Maame Yaa A. B.
Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
title Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
title_full Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
title_fullStr Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
title_full_unstemmed Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
title_short Changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
title_sort changes in low‐acuity patient volume in an emergency department after launching a walk‐in clinic
topic The Practice of Emergency Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10361543/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37484497
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/emp2.13011
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