United States Emergency Department Visits Coded for Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Background Limited information exists about medical treatment for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) Objective Our aim was to estimate the number of emergency department (ED) visits and subsequent hospitalizations that were assigned a code specific to IPV and to describe the clinical and sociodemographic features of this population. Methods Data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample from 2006–2009 were analyzed. Cases with an external cause of injury code of E967.3 (battering by spouse or partner) were abstracted. Results From 2006–2009, there were 112,664 visits made to United States EDs with an e-code for battering by a part-ner or spouse. Most patients were female (93 %) with a mean age of 35 years. Patients were significantly more likely to reside in communities with the lowest median income quar-tile and in the Southern United States. Approximately 5% of visits resulted in hospital admission. The mean charge for treat-and-release visits was $1904.69 and $27,068.00 for hospitalizations. Common diagnoses included superficial injuries and contusions, skull/face fractures, and complications of pregnancy. Females were more likely to experience superficial injuries and contusions, and males were more likely to have open wounds of the head, neck, trunk, and extremities. Conclusions From 2006 to 2009, there were approximately 28,000 ED visits per year with an e-code specific to IPV. Although a minority, 7% of these visits were made by males, which has not been reported previously. Future prospective research should confirm the unique demographic and geographic features of these visits to guide development of targeted screening and intervention strategies to mitigate IPV and further characterize male IPV visits.

Diagnosis of Elder Abuse in U.S. Emergency Departments

“…This is 100 times the percentage of visits diagnosed with elder abuse. In NEDS, the estimated prevalence of IPV in women aged 18 to 64 is 0.07% . Thus, the percentage of visits resulting in a diagnosis of IPV is 5 times the percentage of visits by older adults diagnosed with elder abuse, even though the estimated 1‐year prevalence of IPV in women in the United States (1.3%) is one‐quarter of the lowest estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse in community‐dwelling older adults .…”

“…In NEDS, the estimated prevalence of IPV in women aged 18 to 64 is 0.07%. 20,30 Thus, the percentage of visits resulting in a diagnosis of IPV is 5 times the percentage of visits by older adults diagnosed with elder abuse, even though the estimated 1-year prevalence of IPV in women in the United States (1.3%) is onequarter of the lowest estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse in community-dwelling older adults. 40 The substantially higher rates of diagnosis of child abuse and IPV in recent analyses of NEDS suggests that the low rate of diagnosis of elder abuse results from a failure of emergency providers to identify this problem rather than a failure of the dataset to capture diagnoses that physicians are making.…”

“…Analyses used the 2012 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) and the 2011 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), the most recent years available for each dataset. A similar study design using NEDS was used to report on the frequency of identification of IPV in U.S. EDs …”

“…A similar study design using NEDS was used to report on the frequency of identification of IPV in U.S. EDs. 20 The NEDS is an annual dataset that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) compiles using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) databases. NEDS includes approximately 20% of all U.S. ED visits and, in using a weighted sampling methodology, allows for calculation of national and regional estimates.…”

Double jeopardy: Predictors of elevated lethality risk among intimate partner violence victims seen in emergency departments

“…Author copy. 2 of women treated in EDs were there for IPV-related reasons, with > 1.25 million estimated visits annually (Ambuel et al, 2013;Davidov et al, 2015). A majority of patients experiencing IPV state a willingness to disclose their victimization to healthcare providers (Beynon et al, 2012;Boyle and Jones, 2006;Davidov et al, 2015).…”