Evaluating patient characteristics and trends of avoidable emergency department visits: Informing community health services to reduce emergency department utilization.

ABSTRACT: BackgroundThere is a growing debate on whether avoidable emergency department (ED) visits, those involving health issues that could have been managed in community settings, represent a significant workload for the department. Until recently an ED physician-validated measure of avoidable visits has not been available, hindering our understanding of these patients, services rendered in the ED and the nature of their conditions. We examined patient characteristics of ED visits retrospectively classified as avoidable and potentially avoidable at a Canadian academic hospital.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using administrative ED data from an academic hospital in Hamilton, Canada from April 1, 2018 to August 31, 2023. We categorized all ED visits as avoidable, potentially avoid

SUBMITTER: Strum RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12647383 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature