Patient Dissatisfaction With Primary Care and Nonurgent Emergency Department Use

A well-functioning primary care system will have the capacity to provide timely, adequate, and effective care for patients to avoid nonurgent emergency department (ED) use. This study advances academic discussion by examining whether patient negative experiences during their encounter with a primary care physician (PCP) are associated with nonurgent ED use nationwide in the United States. This retrospective cohort study used data from the 2010-2011 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The independent measures were patient perceptions of PCPs' communication and care quality in 2010. The multivariate logit model was employed to analyze the nonurgent ED use as opposed to no ED use in 2011, after controlling for age, gender, race and ethnicity, rural/urban location, marital status, and education levels in 2010. All predictors were treated as dummy variables. We employed the lagged time effect and controlled health status to account for the endogeneity between outcomes and the main independent variables. The weights and variance were adjusted using the survey procedures to yield nationally representative results. The study sample consisted of 5242 adults, which represented 131 317 908 weighted people in the total population. While the measure of patient satisfaction with providers' communication was not associated with nonurgent ED use (P = .750), patient perceived poor and intermediary levels of primary care quality had higher odds of a nonurgent ED visit (OR = 1.75, P = .049, and OR = 1.48, P = .050, respectively) compared with high levels of care quality. For PCPs, endeavors may be considered in improving health care quality to reduce nonurgent ED use. Whenever possible, PCPs' efforts may want to be devoted to both communication and care quality to improve patients' health outcomes and satisfaction and to reduce nonurgent ED use.