Background: The centers of disease control and prevention define a non-urgent Emergency Department (NU-ED) visit as a medical condition requiring treatment within more than 24 hours. These visits constitute one of the...Background: The centers of disease control and prevention define a non-urgent Emergency Department (NU-ED) visit as a medical condition requiring treatment within more than 24 hours. These visits constitute one of the main reasons for emergency department (ED) overcrowding, which greatly affects healthcare workers’ wellbeing, health costs, patients’ satisfaction and treatment outcomes. Currently, there is no solid definition of non-urgent emergency visits, which is the first step towards dealing and potentially solving this issue. Having that, the aim of the current study is to define and validate the criteria for NU-ED visits in Israel. Methods: This qualitative study included twelve senior physicians and nurses working in Emergency Department and/or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) across Israel. The study was performed using in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews. Qualitative data analysis was performed by conventional content analysis. Results: The urgency of medical visits was defined based on these two questions: 1) Does the medical condition require an immediate treatment? 2) Is the emergency department the only place that can provide the required treatment at a certain timepoint? We found that non-urgent visits mostly occur during the nights and weekends, when medical treatments are not available in the HMOs. Visitors for non-urgent cases mostly complained about minor injuries or chronic conditions, fever, abdominal or chest pain. Most visits occurred based on referral from the family physician or the nurse from the call center. Participants reported a lack of awareness and knowledge about the roles of the EDs and the available options in the HMOs, which seem unable to provide patients with appropriate treatments. The usage of triage scales seems to ensure that patients are being treated based on the clinical urgency of their condition. Medical cases that score above 3 can be defined as non-urgent visits. Therefore, implementation of these scales in the community and their use in decision making of referrals to emergency department might greatly reduce non-urgent visits. Conclusions: Participants defined urgent ED visits as medical situations that need to be treated immediately, while there are no available treatment options in the HMOs. Participants identified many reasons behind NU referrals to the ED, mainly, low awareness about the role of ED, low availability of certain tests in the HMOs, and inability to provide adequate treatment in the community.展开更多
文摘Background: The centers of disease control and prevention define a non-urgent Emergency Department (NU-ED) visit as a medical condition requiring treatment within more than 24 hours. These visits constitute one of the main reasons for emergency department (ED) overcrowding, which greatly affects healthcare workers’ wellbeing, health costs, patients’ satisfaction and treatment outcomes. Currently, there is no solid definition of non-urgent emergency visits, which is the first step towards dealing and potentially solving this issue. Having that, the aim of the current study is to define and validate the criteria for NU-ED visits in Israel. Methods: This qualitative study included twelve senior physicians and nurses working in Emergency Department and/or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) across Israel. The study was performed using in-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews. Qualitative data analysis was performed by conventional content analysis. Results: The urgency of medical visits was defined based on these two questions: 1) Does the medical condition require an immediate treatment? 2) Is the emergency department the only place that can provide the required treatment at a certain timepoint? We found that non-urgent visits mostly occur during the nights and weekends, when medical treatments are not available in the HMOs. Visitors for non-urgent cases mostly complained about minor injuries or chronic conditions, fever, abdominal or chest pain. Most visits occurred based on referral from the family physician or the nurse from the call center. Participants reported a lack of awareness and knowledge about the roles of the EDs and the available options in the HMOs, which seem unable to provide patients with appropriate treatments. The usage of triage scales seems to ensure that patients are being treated based on the clinical urgency of their condition. Medical cases that score above 3 can be defined as non-urgent visits. Therefore, implementation of these scales in the community and their use in decision making of referrals to emergency department might greatly reduce non-urgent visits. Conclusions: Participants defined urgent ED visits as medical situations that need to be treated immediately, while there are no available treatment options in the HMOs. Participants identified many reasons behind NU referrals to the ED, mainly, low awareness about the role of ED, low availability of certain tests in the HMOs, and inability to provide adequate treatment in the community.
