Use of Emergency Medical Services and Characteristics of Urgent and Non-Urgent Adult Patients according to the Usual Source of Care: A Korea Medical Expenditure Panel Study
Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
; : 129-137, 2015.
Article
en Ko
| WPRIM
| ID: wpr-115328
Biblioteca responsable:
WPRO
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Use of emergency rooms (ERs) has increased considerably in Korea. This increase has caused over-crowding and has increased the burden on ER services, created a lack of continuous service provided by ERs, and raised costs. The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of ER use for urgent and non-urgent cases in 2009-2011. METHODS: In this multivariate analysis, we included data collected from the 2009-2011 Korea Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to assess independent factors associated with ER use in non-urgent settings. We consecutively included patients > or =19 years who had completed the survey until 2011. RESULTS: Among the 10,428 respondents, 19.1% of patients had used ERs. Patients who had used EDs were less likely to have attended graduate school (high school: odds ratio [OR], 0.78 [0.63-0.98]; university: OR, 0.69 [0.54-0.89]) or have chronic disease (OR: 0.68 [0.60-0.78]). In addition, patients who did not have a usual source of care (OR, 0.78 [0.70-0.87]) or those who did not have private insurance (OR, 0.86 [0.74-0.99]) were less likely to use ERs. In the 1,994 cases of ER use, however, the any factors were not affected in the non-urgent ER use group. CONCLUSION: The number of patients who used ERs has increased, and there were no significant differences in ER use between non-urgent and urgent patients. ERs may have been used for non-urgent cases owing to other reasons. Further studies on the reasons for non-urgent ER use and development of urgent patient criteria are required.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Índice:
WPRIM
Asunto principal:
Oportunidad Relativa
/
Enfermedad Crónica
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Análisis Multivariante
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Encuestas y Cuestionarios
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Gastos en Salud
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Encuestas de Atención de la Salud
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Servicios Médicos de Urgencia
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Servicio de Urgencia en Hospital
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Seguro
/
Corea (Geográfico)
Tipo de estudio:
Etiology_studies
/
Health_economic_evaluation
Límite:
Adult
/
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
Asia
Idioma:
Ko
Revista:
Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
Año:
2015
Tipo del documento:
Article