Sociodemographic and Health Behaviour of Frequent, Avoidable Emergency Department Users in Ontario, Canada: A Population-based Descriptive Study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Frequent users are a small but important group of patients in the emergency department (ED). This group is often the target of interventions that redirect visits to other areas of the healthcare system under the premise that some of these visits could be best managed elsewhere. Most existing interventions do not consider sociodemographic factors when targeting specific populations, while larger scale policy initiatives often do not reach those who would most benefit from alternative points of healthcare access. In this study we use population-level survey data linked to health administrative data to describe frequent ED users and those whose visits are potentially avoidable and could benefit from additional points of healthcare access.

Methods

This was a populat

SUBMITTER: Thompson C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12698170 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature