Factors associated with higher emergency department utilization

The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors associated with higher Emergency Department (ED) visits in the United States. Higher ED utilization contributes in a major way to costs in the healthcare industry. Unnecessary utilization of emergency department causes medication errors, poor patient satisfaction, lower quality and higher cost. This study analyzed the data from National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) collected in 2010, which involved a sample size of 34,936 ED visits nationwide. The variables in this study included age, ethnicity, type of coverage and gender differences. The result showed that Medicaid population has a higher number of ED visits than other types of insurance coverage; white population shows maximum ED visits than other race types; males visits ED more than females and infants has higher ED rate than other age groups. More research is needed to develop health policies to limit the non-urgent ED visits