Emergency department visits resulting from electric scooter use in a major southeast metropolitan area

To determine the frequency, characteristics, and resource use related to the emergency department (ED) encounters resulting from electric scooter use in a major metropolitan area.

This Institutional Review Board-approved study was conducted at a four-hospital healthcare system. Our clinical data warehouse was retrospectively searched from 5/3/2018 (the date electric scooters were introduced) through 8/15/2019 for various forms of the word "scooter" in triage notes. Demographic variables, arrival mode, length of stay, disposition, and resource utilization, including diagnostic radiology, were extracted.

Over the 471-day study window, 293 unique patients presented with e-scooter injuries (0.62 mean ED visits/day). When broken down into 8-h periods, there was a significant increase (p = 0.048) from Friday after 5 PM through Sunday night. Thirty-two percent of patients arrived at the ED during (newly enacted at the time of study) nighttime e-scooter ban hours (9 PM-4 AM). There was a range of one to nine diagnostic radiology examinations per patient, with 100% (293) of patients receiving at least one diagnostic radiology examination. A total of 710 diagnostic radiology examinations were performed on the entire cohort (mean 2.4 per patient): 77.2% (548) were radiographs and 22.1% (157) were computed tomography (CT).

ED visits resulting from electric scooter injuries are common and increasing. E-scooter injury patients disproportionately present on evenings and weekends, possibly exacerbating already busy periods in the ED. Healthcare resource needs and availability should be considered when developing policy about electric scooter use and distribution, particularly involving emergency care providers in close proximity to e-scooter distribution centers.