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Purpose of Study:
The CHOICE Community Health Improvement Task Force designed the Emergency Room Data Project to test the collection of outpatient data, identify common health and systems issues in emergency rooms, and identify interventions to improve the health status of residents.
The goals and primary benefits of the project include:
- Collection of 1996 ER visit data.
- Organizing ICD9 codes for analysis and comparison.
- Analyzing data and reporting findings.
- Identifying utilization issues that would benefit from interventions.
- Identifying proven target prevention strategies and interventions for implementation in the region.
- Reducing inappropriate visits to emergency rooms.
- Creating a model project that can be replicated in other locations.
- Increasing communication and collaboration among hospitals, practitioners, and public health in the region.
Summary of Findings:
During 1996 there were 99,457 non-admitted visits to emergency rooms of the eight institutions participating in the study. The institutions range in size from small rural hospitals, a tertiary care center for the region, to an urgent care center for a health maintenance organization. There were many similarities in visits to the institutions. They include:
- Visits by males and females were evenly distributed, based on available data.
- Commercial insurance is most often used to pay for care. Medicaid (medical coupons) is second most common payor source and may reflect the prevalence of poverty in the region.
- People between the ages of 25 and 44 comprise the largest group in the region and use the emergency rooms more frequently than others.
- Fifty-five percent of the people using emergency rooms visited only once during the year.
- The most common reason people visited the emergency room was for an injury, most often a sprain, strain or contusion. The second most common reason for a visit was signs and symptoms of either abdominal or chest pain. Respiratory problems frequently brought people to the emergency room or urgent care also.
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