Characteristics of frequent users of emergency departments in Alberta and Ontario, Canada: an administrative data study

Abstract

Objective Frequent users to emergency departments (EDs) are a diverse group of patients accounting for a disproportionate number of ED presentations. This study examined sociodemographic and ED visit characteristics of adult high-system users in two Canadian provinces. Methods Cohorts of high-system users were created for Alberta and Ontario including patients with the top 10% of presentations in the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (April 2015-March 2016). Controls were random samples of non-high-system user patients. Sociodemographic and ED visits data were used to predict high-system user group membership in a multivariable logistic regression model. Results There were 579,674 high-system users and 2,115,960 controls. High-system users were more likely to be female [odds ratio (OR)

Association between mood disorders and frequent emergency department use: a cross-sectional study

“…Most of the studies on frequent ED users were performed outside Canada. A recent study identified patients’ characteristics associated with frequent ED use in Alberta and Ontario [ 4 ]. However, this study was based on administrative data, without health-related variables.…”

Characteristics of High-Resource Health System Users in Rural and Remote Regions: A Scoping Review

“…Of these, seven studies found females were higher resource users than males and six found that sex-based differences were dependent upon other factors. Females were identified as higher resource users in multiple health care settings, including health services for all ages [16,17,21,22,28], health services for youth [29,30], primary care for all ages, and adult emergency department presentations [21,31].…”

“…Three studies used comorbidity scores or indices -ie. the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) -to determine the burden of comorbidities [16,17,21,22,28,32]. Patients with higher scores on the comorbidity indices were more likely to be hospitalized [28] and to see primary care and specialist visits [17].…”

“…Nine of the included studies identified measures of socioeconomic status as important characteristics of high-resource use. Of these, 7 studies identified low socioeconomic status as a characteristic of high-resource use [20,21,23,[28][29][30][31], whereas two studies determined that differences depended upon the health service being accessed [17,20]. Wallar (2020) found that lower income was one of the largest risk factors for highresource use for both males and females [20].…”

Using administrative data on high system users to call for deeper health system interventions

“…In Characteristics of frequent users of emergency departments in Alberta and Ontario, Canada: an administrative data study, Rosychuk et al [1] conducted a broad, thorough and impressive population-based study of individuals who are high-frequency ED users in two Canadian provinces, which are home to approximately 20 million Canadians. Their paper characterizes important demographic and clinical information, which may inform localized interventions and policy creation by provincial ministries, health systems and community providers.…”