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Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine 2015;26(2): 129-137. |
| 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 |
| Youn Suk Chai, Jae Kwang Lee, Seong Soo Park, Hyun Jin Kim, In Gu Kang, Hyun Soo Kim, Moo Sik Lee, Jee Young Hong, Mi Jin Lee |
1Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Korea. neokey@naver.com
2Department of Prevention Medicine, School of Medicine, Konyang University, Daejeon, Korea.
3Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea. |
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| 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. |
| Key words:
Emergency medical service, Utilization, Health expenditure, Health care survey |
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