<p> Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is both a financial and patient care/satisfaction issue throughout the United States. Current literature includes examination of frequent ED users as well as low-acuity ED users, but seldom combines the two. The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge surrounding ED overcrowding, which may be used to inform ED cost reduction strategies. This was done by utilizing National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) data and Chi-Square tests in order to investigate possible associations between frequent, lowacuity ED users and-independently-the following items: payment type, age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Findings show that there is a subset of ED users frequently present for low-acuity ED visits and that significant association exists between these ED users and payment type, age, and race/ethnicity. Through these findings additional information about a subset of frequent ED user is found and an additional context for discussing previous data is provided.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1524165 |
| Date | 21 November 2013 |
| Creators | Stewart, Christopher D. |
| Publisher | California State University, Long Beach |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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