Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study
<b><i>Background</i></b>: The underutilization of primary care services is a possible factor influencing inappropriate emergency service presentations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the proportion and characteristics of patients inappropriately accessing emergen...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Healthcare |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/7/794 |
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| author | Anca Maria Lăcătuș Ioana Anisa Atudorei Andrea Elena Neculau Laura Mihaela Isop Cristina Agnes Vecerdi Liliana Rogozea Mihai Văcaru |
| author_facet | Anca Maria Lăcătuș Ioana Anisa Atudorei Andrea Elena Neculau Laura Mihaela Isop Cristina Agnes Vecerdi Liliana Rogozea Mihai Văcaru |
| author_sort | Anca Maria Lăcătuș |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <b><i>Background</i></b>: The underutilization of primary care services is a possible factor influencing inappropriate emergency service presentations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the proportion and characteristics of patients inappropriately accessing emergency room services from the perspective of primary care underutilization. <b><i>Methods</i></b>: This cross-sectional study included patients who visited the emergency room of a County Hospital, initially triaged with green, blue, or white codes, during a 2-week period in May 2017. Two primary care physicians performed a structured analysis to correlate the initial diagnosis in the emergency room with the final diagnosis to establish whether the patient’s medical complaints could have been resolved in primary care. <b><i>Results</i></b>: A total of 1269 adult patients were included in this study. In total, the medical problems of 71.7% of patients could have been resolved by a primary care physician using clinical skills, extended resources, or other ambulatory care and out-of-hours services. <b><i>Conclusions</i></b>: Low awareness of out-of-hours centers and a lack of resources for delivering more complex services in primary care can lead to inappropriate presentations to the emergency services. Future research on this topic needs to be conducted at the national level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:44:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5f820dbc318c4eb49b0572d58b508294 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:44:26Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-5f820dbc318c4eb49b0572d58b5082942024-04-12T13:19:03ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322024-04-0112779410.3390/healthcare12070794Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional StudyAnca Maria Lăcătuș0Ioana Anisa Atudorei1Andrea Elena Neculau2Laura Mihaela Isop3Cristina Agnes Vecerdi4Liliana Rogozea5Mihai Văcaru6Department of Fundamental, Clinical and Prophylactic Sciences, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, RomaniaDepartment of Social Sciences and Communication, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, RomaniaDepartment of Fundamental, Clinical and Prophylactic Sciences, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, RomaniaDepartment of Fundamental, Clinical and Prophylactic Sciences, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, RomaniaDepartment of Clinical and Surgical Disciplines, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, RomaniaDepartment of Fundamental, Clinical and Prophylactic Sciences, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, RomaniaDepartment of Fundamental, Clinical and Prophylactic Sciences, Transylvania University, 500036 Brașov, Romania<b><i>Background</i></b>: The underutilization of primary care services is a possible factor influencing inappropriate emergency service presentations. The objective of this study was to evaluate the proportion and characteristics of patients inappropriately accessing emergency room services from the perspective of primary care underutilization. <b><i>Methods</i></b>: This cross-sectional study included patients who visited the emergency room of a County Hospital, initially triaged with green, blue, or white codes, during a 2-week period in May 2017. Two primary care physicians performed a structured analysis to correlate the initial diagnosis in the emergency room with the final diagnosis to establish whether the patient’s medical complaints could have been resolved in primary care. <b><i>Results</i></b>: A total of 1269 adult patients were included in this study. In total, the medical problems of 71.7% of patients could have been resolved by a primary care physician using clinical skills, extended resources, or other ambulatory care and out-of-hours services. <b><i>Conclusions</i></b>: Low awareness of out-of-hours centers and a lack of resources for delivering more complex services in primary care can lead to inappropriate presentations to the emergency services. Future research on this topic needs to be conducted at the national level.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/7/794primary careunderutilizationemergency servicesout-of-hours primary care |
| spellingShingle | Anca Maria Lăcătuș Ioana Anisa Atudorei Andrea Elena Neculau Laura Mihaela Isop Cristina Agnes Vecerdi Liliana Rogozea Mihai Văcaru Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study Healthcare primary care underutilization emergency services out-of-hours primary care |
| title | Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_full | Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_fullStr | Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_short | Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study |
| title_sort | inappropriate use of emergency services from the perspective of primary care underutilization in a local romanian context a cross sectional study |
| topic | primary care underutilization emergency services out-of-hours primary care |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/7/794 |
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