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Many parents choose hospital emergency departments for nonemergency visits, even during regular office hours. Factors like physician referral and parental preference influence these decisions, impacting healthcare access.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Hospital emergency departments (EDs) are often utilized for nonemergency pediatric care.
- Understanding parental decision-making for ED visits is crucial for optimizing healthcare resource allocation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify key factors influencing parents' decisions to seek pediatric care at hospital emergency departments.
- To analyze the relationship between patient/parent characteristics and the choice of emergency department over other healthcare settings.
Main Methods:
- A study examining six factors related to parents' choices for bringing children to hospital emergency departments.
- Data collected on arrival time, travel time, decision-maker, prior physician contact, and preferred care location.
Main Results:
- Nearly half (47%) of nonemergency visits occurred during physician office hours.
- Most patients lived within a 15-minute travel time to the hospital.
- Physicians initiated 18% of ED visits; 80% of patients had a private physician.
- 46% of parents preferred the ED over a physician's office; 74% referred to ED after attempting healthcare contact.
Conclusions:
- Parental preference and healthcare system referrals significantly drive nonemergency pediatric emergency department utilization.
- Strategies to improve primary care access and patient education may reduce nonemergent ED visits.
Abstract:
We examined six factors that may help to explain why parents take their children to hospital emergency departments: arrival time; travel time; who decided the patient should go; did the patient have a physician; did the parent attempt physician contact, and where the parent would have preferred to have gone for treatment. Results indicate that 47% of the nonemergency visits occurred during the time when physicians maintain office hours. Most visits were made by patients living less than 15 minutes away from the hospital. Physicians decided that the patient should go to the emergency department 18% of the time. Patients with a private physician accounted for 80% of the visits. Most parents did not try to contact a physician prior to the visit. Indeed, 46% of the parents preferred to take their children to the emergency department rather than to a physician's office. Finally, 74% of the parents who attempted some contact with a member of the health care system were referred to the emergengy department for care.