Use and Performance Variations in U.S. Rural Emergency Departments: Implications for Improving Care Quality and Reducing Costs.

摘要

Rural areas have a higher prevalence of subpopulations who are at high risk for using the Emergency Department (ED) for non-emergent purposes, namely low income populations who either lack health insurance and/or who qualify for state Medicaid programs. Rural areas are also more likely to be facing shortages of primary care providers than urban areas. Hence, the potential for using the ED for non-emergent purposes is greater in rural than urban areas. However, no studies have documented differences in the geographic variation in the use of ED services for non-emergent conditions. The purpose of this brief is to describe the geographic variation in the use of EDs for non-emergent health conditions across rural and urban areas as well as by U.S. Census Regions.