Frequency and factors associated with misuse of hospital emergency services

Situations that affect the saturation of emergency services mention their misuse by patients. Identifying factors associated with this phenomenon will allow us to develop strategies to optimize its operation.

We conducted an observational study. The study was approved by the Research Committee and included randomized patients who requested emergency consultations during the month of October 2008. An instrument was expressly designed to study the application for inadequate attention and five indicators. We used descriptive statistics and odds ratio.

We conducted 718 interviews: 74.14% in adults and 25.45% in children. Of these, 61.11% were male and the mean age was 65.15 ± 19.32 years. Of the consultations, 65.17% were considered inappropriate (61.67-75.20% for adult and pediatric patients). The association of factors are significant according to the following: service consultation on Friday (OR 4.21) and Monday (OR 3.45), perception of receiving rapid attention (OR 3.24), being denied care in this unit (OR 3.14), lower level of primary education (OR 3.21), arriving during the evening shift (OR 2.56), affiliation with family medical unit 35 (OR 2.19), and earning a minimum wage income (OR 2.27).

Misuse of emergency department services is higher than that reported worldwide. Factors associated with this deviation may be solved by improving the processes of first-level units.