We analyze the 2011–2016 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Emergency Department Databases and State Inpatient Databases for all emergency department visits by children and adolescents in New York to estimate the association between autism spectrum disorder and frequent emergency department utilization. Our study included 5.9 million individuals with 9.1 million emergency department visits. Of those, 31,682 had autism spectrum disorder (0.5%) accounting for 66,053 (0.7%) emergency department visits. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder had on average 0.6 more emergency department visits per year, were more likely to exhibit frequent emergency department use (⩾4, ⩾6, ⩾8, and ⩾10 emergency department visits/year), and had larger shares of comorbidities and diagnoses related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, and epilepsy. These findings highlight the need for patient and family-centered care interventions and emergency department staff education initiatives. Lay abstract This study used data for 5.9 million individuals with 9.1 million emergency department visits from all hospitals in the state of New York to explore frequent emergency department use between children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and those without autism spectrum disorders. We found that children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders had larger shares of comorbidities and diagnoses related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, and epilepsy. Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders were also more likely to utilize emergency departments and to exhibit frequent use. These results emphasize the need for using family-centered care to improve the care experiences of children and youth with autism spectrum disorders and their families. In addition, the education of emergency department staff of processes and practices as it relates to delivery of care and the care experience.
We analyzed the Healthcare Cost and Utilization State Emergency Department (ED) Databases and State Inpatient Databases for all individuals who were 2 years of age or older with at least one ED visit from 2011 to 2016 in New York to estimate the association between suicide and non-fatal injury-related ED visits and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our study included 14.4 million individuals with 43.5 million ED visits. Of those, 31,946 (0.2%) individuals had ASD accounting for 162,440 ED visits (0.4%). Compared to those without ASD, individuals with ASD had 2.1 more ED visits on average, higher shares of inpatient ED visits, more years of ED utilization, and higher prevalence of mental health-related comorbidities and diagnoses and self-injury-related ED visits. Among the ASD cohort, 6.1% had at least one self-injury-related ED visit compared to 2.2% among those without ASD. Using multivariable regressions adjusted for sociodemographic, clinical, contextual, and visit-level characteristics, we found that individuals with ASD were significantly more likely to have at least one self-injury-related ED visit compared to those without ASD. Our findings highlight the importance of raising awareness among caregivers and providers about the increased self-injury risk that individuals with ASD face and to tailor care delivery practices towards their needs. Lay abstract This study used data for 14.4 million individuals with 43.5 million emergency department visits from all hospitals in the state of New York to explore the association between suicide and non-fatal self-injury-related (self-injury) emergency department visits and autism spectrum disorder. Overall, we found that individuals with autism spectrum disorder had more emergency department visits and admissions through the emergency department, more years of emergency department utilization, and higher prevalence of mental health-related comorbidities. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder were also significantly more likely to have at least one self-injury-related emergency department visit compared to those without autism spectrum disorder. These results emphasize the need to raise awareness across both family caregivers and healthcare providers on the increased suicide and self-injury risks that individuals with autism spectrum disorder face and to improve care delivery practices. In addition, effort to promote and increase timely access to mental health care is an urgent priority for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
National estimates of hospitalization diagnoses and costs were determined using the 2016 HCUP Kids' Inpatient Database. Children and youth with autism were hospitalized over 45,000 times at over $560 million in costs and 260,000 inpatient days. The most frequent principal diagnoses for hospitalizations of children and youth with autism were epilepsy, mental health conditions, pneumonia, asthma, and gastrointestinal disorders, which resulted in almost $200 million in costs and 150,000 inpatient days. Mental health diagnoses accounted for 24.8% of hospitalizations, an estimated $82 million in costs, and approximately 94,000 inpatient days. Children and youth with autism were more likely hospitalized for epilepsy, mental health diagnoses, and gastrointestinal disorders, and less likely for pneumonia and asthma compared to other children and youth.
UNSTRUCTURED Youth with Special Health Care Needs (YSHCN) have chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions that require health care and other services beyond typical utilization. We evaluated, using the concurrent think aloud (CTA) method , the Website Evaluation Questionnaire (WEQ), a task performance analysis, and Van Den Haak et als’ problem relevance metric, a care transition tool for providers of YSHCN. This tool, the Texas Transition Toolkit (T3) supports medical home providers by providing: a “one-stop-shop” to research literature on transition care, a catalog of relevant tools for providers to assess their organization or the YSHCN and families they work with, and guides for developing a transition program in their medical home. Our mixed-methods deep dive into the usability and functionality of the T3 focused on ten end-users from one medical home in Texas. While the T3 was well-received by end users, our analyses identified areas of concern regarding the application. End-users reported the most difficulty in two areas of functionality and usability: inefficient search function and navigation characteristics. This was reflected in both the CTA trial and the WEQ, and supported by the task performance and relevance analyses. Participants reported low satisfaction with search (75.3%) and navigation dimensions (ease of use=75.7%; hyperlinks=78%; and structure=79%), relatively high number of search and navigation related problems (n=21, or 67.75% of the total problems detected1), and low tasks completion for tasks involving finding tools (70%) which requires searching and navigation. The problems identified around search and navigation functionality were also assessed as ‘relevant’. Each of these areas of analyses triangulate on search and navigation issues, suggesting a robustness of results. Results from the usability trial provided a road map for optimizing the T3, and highlighted the importance of evaluating eHealth technologies with end users.
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