Emergency department utilization and presenting chief complaints by Veterans living with dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Veteran persons living with dementia (PLWDs) have high acute care utilization. We aim to understand why PLWDs seek care in the emergency department (ED) and how their utilization differs from older Veterans with no dementia diagnosis. We demonstrate the use of a novel national chief complaint data set in the Veteran Affairs Health Care System.

Methods

This was a retrospective observational study of ED users 65 years or older as of FY2017. The primary outcome is presence of one or more ED visits in FYs 2017-2018 using a logistic regression model controlling for dementia and other variables. Secondary outcomes include counts of ED visits by disposition, Emergency Severity Index, chief complaints defined by a natural language processing program, and ED encounter diag

SUBMITTER: Seidenfeld J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10192204 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature