Emergency Department Frequent Users for Acute Alcohol Intoxication

Area of Science:

• Emergency medicine
• Public health
• Alcohol-related disorders

Background:

• Frequent emergency department (ED) use is a significant concern.
• A specific subset of frequent ED users presents for acute alcohol intoxication.
• The characteristics of this population and their ED utilization patterns remain largely undescribed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the population of frequent emergency department users presenting for acute alcohol intoxication.
• To characterize their demographic profiles and medical/psychiatric comorbidities.
• To analyze their emergency department encounter patterns.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective, observational cohort study of patients presenting to the ED for acute alcohol intoxication (2012-2016).
• Data extracted from electronic medical records.
• Frequent users defined as >20 ED visits for acute intoxication without other chief complaints in 12 months.

Main Results:

• Identified 32,121 patient encounters; 325 patients (1.0%) were frequent users, accounting for 11,370 encounters (35.4%).
• Frequent users had a median of 47 annual intoxication-related ED visits (range 20-169).
• Frequent users were older (median 47 vs. 39 years), more commonly male (86% vs. 71%), and had significantly higher rates of medical (liver disease, CKD, IHD, COPD, TBI) and psychiatric (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder) comorbidities.

Conclusions:

• A distinct population of frequent emergency department users specifically for acute alcohol intoxication was identified.
• This frequent user group exhibits a higher burden of medical and psychiatric comorbidities compared to non-frequent users.
• Findings highlight the need for targeted interventions for this high-utilizing population.