Non-urgent visits to a hospital emergency department in Italy

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of non-urgent visits and the effect of different characteristics on such visits to one public hospital emergency department located in Catanzaro, Italy. Of 581 patients aged 15 years and older who were registered for care in the emergency department, 40 were excluded from the study as they were too ill or distressed. The survey questionnaire included questions about the patients' demographic and socio-economic characteristics, distance from home to hospital, usual health status and health status at the time of presentation to the emergency department. Of the 541 patients who agreed to participate, 19.6% of patients, according to the judgement of two observers, had non-urgent conditions. The results of the multiple logistic regression analysis showed that among all variables tested, age and sex were significant predisposing factors for utilization of the emergency department for non-urgent visits. Indeed, the odds of presenting for non-urgent care were significantly higher if patients were younger and female. Moreover, the odds of requiring non-urgent care were significantly higher in patients who present to the emergency department without medical referral and in patients who present with problems of longer duration. The most frequent reason given by patients for their visit to the emergency department was that they felt their problem was an emergency. Further investigations are necessary to evaluate the use of primary care since closer co-operation within the healthcare organization system may provide a more responsive service.