University of Texas Health Science Center's Julianna West and colleagues utilized the 2017 Texas Emergency Data Set to describe visits to the emergency department for hemodialysis among both the insured and uninsured adults.
The assessment was limited only to patients with a one-day stay (or less) at the Emergency Department (ED).
The researchers were able to identify over 30,000 ED visits linked to hemodialysis, including the more than 10,000 uninsured patients and more than 20,000 insured patients.
In comparison with insured patients, uninsured patients who require hemodialysis was more possibly to be younger between 18and 44 years old.
Most patients who require hemodialysis in ED were discharged to either home health care or home. Relatively, the total hospital costs recorded were $21,837,047.40 specifically for "uninsured hemodialysis visits."
Approaches like providing scheduled outpatient hemodialysis for patients who are uninsured with end-stage renal illness and treating patients who are insured in "after-hours outpatient settings" can be a cost-oriented substitute to ED visits for hemodialysis, possibly easing system burdens, achieving improved patient results and saving resources for health care.
Increased Repeat ER Visits
The emergency department currently being increasingly employed as the best or only option for the treatment of a patient for opioid use disorder (OUD).
A new study on Annals of Emergency Medicine presents that the prevalence of patients who visited ED at four Indiana hospital systems for a repeat of opioid-related emergencies which jumped from 8.8% of all visits in 2012 that were opioid-related to 34.1% in 2017, almost a four-fold rise in just short five years.
EDs are vital partners when it comes to treating OUD. Less often discussed is ED data's value that can be used for the prediction and prevention of emergencies among at-risk patients.
This was according to lead study author, Casey P. Balio, Ph.D., also a candidate at IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI.
She also added, since ED is such an essential care site, there is a need to determine opportunities for treatment, and backing that contributes to the efficiency across care systems, not to mention benefit patients.
ED Encounter and Documentation
Patients who have more frequent previous ED visits that were opioid-related, prior distinctive previous number hospital systems where they've had an ED experience, heroin application, being documented during the experience, those which Medicaid insured or uninsured relation to privately insured were more possible to experience future ED encounter "for opioid-related emergencies," the said analysis finds.
In addition, the same study of over 9,000 patients in the four Indiana hospital systems was performed with detailed information from statewide regional Health Information Exchange system that evaluated the visit detail, community traits, and prescription history.
As a conclusion, Balio said, "consolidating the information of a patient from multiple Eds can improve the assessment of risk and help determine more opportunities of providing patients with proper treatment, specifically those with multiple ED visits for OUD-related health emergencies."
More effective utilization of health information can allow more effective care for the said individuals.
