Emergency department condition acuity, length of stay, and revisits among deaf and hard-of-hearing patients: A retrospective chart review.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) patients are understudied in emergency medicine health services research. Theory and limited evidence suggest that DHH patients are at higher risk of emergency department (ED) utilization and poorer quality of care. This study assessed ED condition acuity, length of stay (LOS), and acute ED revisits among DHH patients. We hypothesized that DHH patients would experience poorer ED care outcomes.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective chart review of a single health care system using data from a large academic medical center in the southeast United States. Data were received from the medical center's data office, and we sampled patients and encounters from between June 2011 and April 2020. We compared DHH American Sign Language (ASL) users

SUBMITTER: James TG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9671827 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature