Self-referred walk-in patients in the emergency department - who and why? Consultation determinants in a multicenter study of respiratory patients in Berlin, Germany

Emergency department (ED) consultations are on the rise, and frequently consultations by non-urgent patients have been held accountable. Self-referred walk-in (SRW) consulters supposedly represent a predominantly less urgent patient population. The EMACROSS study aimed to explore consultation determ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC health services research 2020-09, Vol.20 (1), p.848-848, Article 848
Main Authors: Holzinger, Felix, Oslislo, Sarah, Möckel, Martin, Schenk, Liane, Pigorsch, Mareen, Heintze, Christoph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Ambulatory Care
Berlin - epidemiology
Care and treatment
Chronic Disease
Consultation determinants
Crowding
Diagnosis
Dyspnea
Education
Emergency department
Emergency medical care
Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Family physicians
Female
Health Care Surveys
Health care utilization
Health services
Health services utilization
Hospital emergency services
Hospitals
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Management
Medical consultation
Medical examination
Middle Aged
Motivation
Outpatients
Patients
Questionnaires
Referral and Consultation - statistics & numerical data
Respiratory conditions
Respiratory failure
Respiratory tract diseases
Self Care
User statistics
Variables
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Emergency department (ED) consultations are on the rise, and frequently consultations by non-urgent patients have been held accountable. Self-referred walk-in (SRW) consulters supposedly represent a predominantly less urgent patient population. The EMACROSS study aimed to explore consultation determinants and motives in SRW patients with respiratory symptoms. Multicenter survey of adult ED patients with respiratory complaints in eight emergency departments in central Berlin, Germany. Secondary hospital records data including diagnoses was additionally assessed. Characteristics of SRW and non-SRW patients were compared. Determinants of SRW consultation were evaluated by binary logistic regression. Consultation motives were analyzed descriptively. As a supplemental approach, network analysis (lasso-regularized mixed graphical model) was performed to explore connections between consultation determinants, consultation features and motives. Between June 2017 and November 2018, n = 472 participants were included, the median age was 55 years (range 18-96), 53.2% of patients were male and n = 185 cases (39.2%) were SRW consulters. The SRW group showed lower proportions of potentially severe (pneumonia and respiratory failure, p 
ISSN:1472-6963
1472-6963
DOI:10.1186/s12913-020-05689-2