Use and abuse of hospital emergency departments

A sample survey of 3622 patients attending the emergency department at Toronto's North York General Hospital was conducted during July 1970. The objectives were to study the increasing use of this department, especially by non-urgent patients, to discover reasons for this trend, and to recommend possible ways of reversing or at least coping with the increasing usage.Over 80 percent of the sample said they had a family physician; however, less than 40 percent reported phoning him before coming to the department. The results show that the family physician can be effective (over the telephone) in screening prospective emergency patients.Dr. Bain concludes that it's time to educate the public to use family physicians and emergency departments more effectively. Should public education be ineffective, it will be necessary to develop, construct and staff facilities to handle non-urgent, non-traumatic patients.