Differences in triage category, priority level and hospitalization rate between young-old and old-old patients visiting the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Emergency Department (ED) are challenged by the increasing number of visits made by the heterogeneous population of elderly persons. This study aims to 1) compare chief complaints (triage categories) and level of priority; 2) to investigate their association with hospitalization after an ED visit; 3) to explore factors explaining the difference in hospitalization rates among community-dwelling older adults aged 65-84 vs 85+ years. METHODS: All ED visits of patients age 65 and over that occurred between 2005 and 2010 to the University of Lausanne Medical Center were analyzed. Associations of hospitalization with triage categories and level of priority using regressions were compared between the two age groups. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition was performed to explore how much age-related differences in prevalence of priority level and triage categories contributed to predicted difference in hospitalization rates across the two age groups. RESULTS: Among 39'178 ED visits, 8'812 (22.5%) occurred in 85+ patients. This group had fewer high priority and more low priority conditions than the younger group. Older patients were more frequently triaged in "Trauma" (20.9 vs 15.0%) and "Home care impossible" (10.1% vs 4.2%) categories, and were more frequently hospitalized after their ED visit (69.1% vs 58.5%). Differences in prevalence of triage categories between the two age groups explained a quarter (26%) of the total age-related difference in hospitalization rates, whereas priority level did not play a role. CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of priority level and in triage categories differed across the two age groups but only triage categories contributed moderately to explaining the age-related difference in hospitalization rates after the ED visit. Indeed, most of this difference remained unexplained, suggesting that age itself, besides other unmeasured factors, may play a role in explaining the higher hospitalization rate in patients aged 85+ years.

[Family practitioners in Switzerland by 2030: which roles for medical task delegation?]. / La medecine de famille en Suisse a l'horizon 2030: quelle place pour la delegation des taches medicales?

Due to population aging, by 2030 Switzerland may face a demand of 24 million family practitioner visits, a growth of 13 percent from the 2005 level. This result is based on the assumption that the per capita demand for doctor visits remains what was observed in 2005 by age groups and sex. During the same period, the total number of practitioners may decrease by 14 percent whereas the female proportion of such practitioners may double. These changes may cause a 33 percent decrease in the supply of physician visits to reach only 14 millions. The comparison of the demand and supply of family doctor visits reveals that by 2030, 10 million visits may be unmet which represents 40 percent of the demand. On the supply side, a full scale implementation of task delegation may partially reduce that gap (minus 2 millions). On the demand side, improved health status may bring in a larger decrease in the needs for visits (minus 4 million).