Patterns of Multiple Emergency Department Visits: Do Primary Care Physicians Matter?

Overutilization and overreliance on Emergency Departments (EDs) as a usual source of care can lead to unnecessarily high costs and undesirable consequences, such as a gap in care coordination and inadequate provision of preventive care.

To identify factors associated with multiple ED visits by patients, in particular, the impact of primary care physicians (PCPs) on their patients' multiple ED visit rates.

Geisinger Health Plan claims data among adult patients who averaged more than 1 ED visit within a 12-month period between 2013 and 2014 were obtained (N = 20,351).

Rate of ED visits. Three linear regression models using patient characteristics and utilization patterns as covariates along with PCP fixed effects were estimated to explain the variation in the multiple ED visit rates.

Multiple ED visits were significantly associated with younger age (18-39 years), having Medicaid insurance, and greater comorbidity. Higher rates of physician office visits and inpatient admissions were also associated with higher rates of multiple ED visits. Accounting for PCP characteristics only marginally improved the explained variation (R² increased from 0.14 to 0.16).

Multiple ED visit patterns are likely driven by patients' health conditions and care needs rather than by their PCPs. Multiple ED visits also appear to be complementary, rather than substitutionary, to PCP visits, suggesting that PCP-focused interventions aimed at reducing ED use are unlikely to have a major impact.