Use of Emergency Medical Services and Characteristics of Urgent and Non-Urgent Adult Patients according to the Usual Source of Care: A Korea Medical Expenditure Panel Study.
- Author:
Youn Suk CHAI
1
;
Jae Kwang LEE
;
Seong Soo PARK
;
Hyun Jin KIM
;
In Gu KANG
;
Hyun Soo KIM
;
Moo Sik LEE
;
Jee Young HONG
;
Mi Jin LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Korea. neokey@naver.com
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Emergency medical service;
Utilization;
Health expenditure;
Health care survey
- MeSH:
Adult*;
Chronic Disease;
Surveys and Questionnaires;
Emergency Medical Services*;
Emergency Service, Hospital;
Health Care Surveys;
Health Expenditures*;
Humans;
Insurance;
Korea;
Multivariate Analysis;
Odds Ratio
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
2015;26(2):129-137
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
PURPOSE: Use of emergency rooms (ERs) has increased considerably in Korea. This increase has caused over-crowding and has increased the burden on ER services, created a lack of continuous service provided by ERs, and raised costs. The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of ER use for urgent and non-urgent cases in 2009-2011. METHODS: In this multivariate analysis, we included data collected from the 2009-2011 Korea Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to assess independent factors associated with ER use in non-urgent settings. We consecutively included patients > or =19 years who had completed the survey until 2011. RESULTS: Among the 10,428 respondents, 19.1% of patients had used ERs. Patients who had used EDs were less likely to have attended graduate school (high school: odds ratio [OR], 0.78 [0.63-0.98]; university: OR, 0.69 [0.54-0.89]) or have chronic disease (OR: 0.68 [0.60-0.78]). In addition, patients who did not have a usual source of care (OR, 0.78 [0.70-0.87]) or those who did not have private insurance (OR, 0.86 [0.74-0.99]) were less likely to use ERs. In the 1,994 cases of ER use, however, the any factors were not affected in the non-urgent ER use group. CONCLUSION: The number of patients who used ERs has increased, and there were no significant differences in ER use between non-urgent and urgent patients. ERs may have been used for non-urgent cases owing to other reasons. Further studies on the reasons for non-urgent ER use and development of urgent patient criteria are required.
