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Willingness to accept alternatives to traditional emergency care: Patient characteristics, alternate transport modes and alternate destinations
Emergency departments (EDs) are witnessing increased demand for services and many ED patients can be appropriately treated at alternative destinations, such as urgent care centers (UCCs) and primary care physician (PCP) offices. However, research on patient willingness to accept such alternatives is limited.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional survey study among patients at an academic medical center ED. We developed an interview-based survey that included questions on demographic and clinical characteristics, perceived illness severity, and acceptability of alternatives to traditional emergency care for acute illness and injuries. We calculated the proportion of subjects who found transport modes and alternative destinations acceptable and developed a log-binomial regression model to identify patient characteristics associated with acceptability of alternative destinations.
Results
There were 1,052 subjects available for analysis. The median age was 61 and 51.4% were female. 65% of subjects indicated transportation via medical transport van as acceptable and 69% indicated treatment at an UCC or PCP office was acceptable. In multivariable analysis, age, race, clinical acuity, and patient-perceived illness severity were statistically significant predictors of willingness to accept alternatives to ED-based care (p<0.05).
Conclusion
The majority of subjects found alternative transport modes and alternative destinations to be acceptable and person-specific characteristics can be used to identify which patients may be willing to be treated at non-ED locations. Before widespread alternative destination programs can be implemented, further research should confirm these findings in other samples and identify which patients can be safely treated using these alternative care delivery options.
Learning Areas:
Clinical medicine applied in public healthOther professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Explain why alternatives to emergency care may benefit patients as well as the broader emergency care system.
Discuss which alternatives to traditional emergency care were most acceptable to subjects in this sample.
Identify patient-level factors associated with increased acceptability of alternatives to emergency department care.
Keyword(s): Emergency Medical Services, Health Care Access
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I'm an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health Sciences, with extensive experience conducting public health research. I have 7 years of experience in the field of emergency medicine research. Specifically, my research foci include prehospital ambulance-based emergency medical services (EMS) and how patient care delivered in this unique setting can influence patient outcomes and the efficiency of the overall emergency care system.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.