Understanding the use of emergency department and urgent care services by diabetic patients of a Family Medicine Health Team: a retrospective observational study

Abstract

A retrospective, observational study with comparison control groups was conducted from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014. A total of 693 diabetic patients were compared with two, age-standardized non-diabetic groups: one with a higher disease burden based on International Classification of Diseases 9 diagnoses and the other from a randomized patient pool. Findings The diabetic group utilized ED/UC services 1.25 and 1.92 times more often than the two control populations, consistent with that observed in other studies. Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale scores were essentially the same for the diabetic population. Only 3.1% of visits were for diabetic related emergencies, in contrast to the expected 23% by surveyed physicians of the FHT. Diabetic patient's sought treatment for cellulitis, wounds, abscesses, and infections more often than the control populations.

Primary care and the public’s health: evidence from service development initiatives

“…This study highlights the importance of the orientation of PHC team members to the type of service that the PHC team is providing. This second theme, which recognises that the organisation of primary care is critical to issues of acceptability and access, is also addressed in the papers by Ogaji et al (2017), Wang and Liang (2017), Chang et al (2017) and Ward (2017).…”

“…Finally, perhaps highlighting an issue regarding communication and co-operation between PHC and a patient group, Ward (2017) discusses data concerning attendance at an emergency department by people with diabetes compared to a control group. Although people with diabetes had more attendances than people in the control group, counter-intuitively and contrary to the 23% emergency attendance predicted by doctors surveyed, Ward found that only 3.1% of attendances were for diabetic emergencies.…”