Reasons for Utilization of the Emergency Room at Irwin Army Community Hospital by Patients Classified as Non-Urgent

摘要

The primary objective for conducting this study was to identify the reasons patients categorized as having non-urgent conditions utilized the emergency room (ER) at Irwin Army Community Hospital, Fort Riley, Kansas, a 44- bed facility that serves a user population of approximately 30,000 people. The research method for this study was a descriptive, cross-sectional design and utilized a questionnaire to obtain patient responses. Patients who presented to the ER between 16 February 1999 and 14 March 1999, and who were assessed as having a non-urgent medical condition were eligible to participate in this study. A total of 2,333 patients (93.0% of all patients) who presented to the ER were eligible for study. Of the 380 questionnaires that were distributed, 296 patients (12.7% of the total number of patients who presented) returned completed questionnaires. Of that total, 142 patients(48.0%) utilized the ER because they believed they had an emergent or urgent medical condition that required attention within two to four hours and 16 patients (5.4%) stated that they were too sick to go anywhere else. One hundred nine patients (36.8%) indicated that their use of the ER related to issues regarding access to primary care sources, which included 54 patients (49.5% of access reasons) who reported that their primary care clinics were not operational during convenient times and 36 patients (33.0% of access reasons) who utilized the ER because no primary care appointments were available when they tried to schedule them. Sixty-three (21.3%) respondents stated that they were referred to the ER by a health care provider or telephone advice nurse. A total of 41 patients (13.9%) cited dissatisfaction with their current sources of primary care and/or had opinions that the ER staff provided better care than that given by their respective primary care managers. Perception.