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Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary factors associated with inappropriate out‐of‐hours emergency department (ED) use by patients with nonurgent conditions. METHODS: We compared patients with nonurgent conditions who made inappropriate, out‐of‐hours ED visits to patie...

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Autores principales: Miyazawa, Asako, Maeno, Takami, Shaku, Fumio, Tsutsumi, Madoka, Kurihara, Hiroshi, Takayashiki, Ayumi, Kohno, Mototsugu, Suzuki, Masatsune, Maeno, Tetsuhiro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6612776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31312581
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgf2.249
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author Miyazawa, Asako
Maeno, Takami
Shaku, Fumio
Tsutsumi, Madoka
Kurihara, Hiroshi
Takayashiki, Ayumi
Kohno, Mototsugu
Suzuki, Masatsune
Maeno, Tetsuhiro
author_facet Miyazawa, Asako
Maeno, Takami
Shaku, Fumio
Tsutsumi, Madoka
Kurihara, Hiroshi
Takayashiki, Ayumi
Kohno, Mototsugu
Suzuki, Masatsune
Maeno, Tetsuhiro
author_sort Miyazawa, Asako
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary factors associated with inappropriate out‐of‐hours emergency department (ED) use by patients with nonurgent conditions. METHODS: We compared patients with nonurgent conditions who made inappropriate, out‐of‐hours ED visits to patients who visited an acute care hospital during daytime consultation hours between May 30 and October 16, 2014, in terms of patient characteristics and reasons for consultation. Our goal was to identify factors associated with inappropriate ED use, defined as an out‐of‐hours, nonurgent, and unnecessary visits. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 84 patients who made inappropriate use of out‐of‐hours emergency care and 147 patients who sought care during regular consultation hours. In the inappropriate use group, “desire to be cured quickly” was the most common reason. Acute upper respiratory infection, acute gastroenteritis, and primary headache comprised 51.1% of diagnoses in the inappropriate use group. One factor associated with inappropriate use was two or more previous out‐of‐hours ED visits (odds ratio (OR) 3.19; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22‐8.31) (reference: 0 visits). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with two or more previous out‐of‐hours ED visits were more than three times as likely to inappropriately use the ED compared to patients who had not visited the ED at all in the past 3 years.
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spelling pubmed-66127762019-07-16 Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital Miyazawa, Asako Maeno, Takami Shaku, Fumio Tsutsumi, Madoka Kurihara, Hiroshi Takayashiki, Ayumi Kohno, Mototsugu Suzuki, Masatsune Maeno, Tetsuhiro J Gen Fam Med Original Articles BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the primary factors associated with inappropriate out‐of‐hours emergency department (ED) use by patients with nonurgent conditions. METHODS: We compared patients with nonurgent conditions who made inappropriate, out‐of‐hours ED visits to patients who visited an acute care hospital during daytime consultation hours between May 30 and October 16, 2014, in terms of patient characteristics and reasons for consultation. Our goal was to identify factors associated with inappropriate ED use, defined as an out‐of‐hours, nonurgent, and unnecessary visits. RESULTS: We analyzed data from 84 patients who made inappropriate use of out‐of‐hours emergency care and 147 patients who sought care during regular consultation hours. In the inappropriate use group, “desire to be cured quickly” was the most common reason. Acute upper respiratory infection, acute gastroenteritis, and primary headache comprised 51.1% of diagnoses in the inappropriate use group. One factor associated with inappropriate use was two or more previous out‐of‐hours ED visits (odds ratio (OR) 3.19; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22‐8.31) (reference: 0 visits). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with two or more previous out‐of‐hours ED visits were more than three times as likely to inappropriately use the ED compared to patients who had not visited the ED at all in the past 3 years. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6612776/ /pubmed/31312581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgf2.249 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Journal of General and Family Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japan Primary Care Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Miyazawa, Asako
Maeno, Takami
Shaku, Fumio
Tsutsumi, Madoka
Kurihara, Hiroshi
Takayashiki, Ayumi
Kohno, Mototsugu
Suzuki, Masatsune
Maeno, Tetsuhiro
Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital
title Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital
title_full Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital
title_fullStr Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital
title_full_unstemmed Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital
title_short Inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: Patient characteristics and associated factors at a Japanese hospital
title_sort inappropriate use of the emergency department for nonurgent conditions: patient characteristics and associated factors at a japanese hospital
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6612776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31312581
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgf2.249
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