Utilization of emergency ophthalmology services in Taiwan: a nationwide population study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to conduct a nationwide survey of the use of emergency ophthalmology services using a sub-dataset of one million beneficiaries sampled from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) for the years 2008 through 2012. By analyzing this population dataset, the study illustrates the disease landscape of emergency eye care services. The five-year, one-million-person NHIRD sub-dataset for 2008 through 2012 was used to explore emergency visits and ophthalmology specialty visits and to analyze the associated demographics and diagnosis codes based on the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). Diagnoses were categorized into three groups: urgent, non-urgent, and intermediate. A total of 2454 emergency eye care visits were identified. The mean age of the patients who made these visits was 34.6 years old, and their sex ratio was 1.36 men to women. The percentages of urgent, non-urgent, and intermediate eye care visits in this study were 48.2%, 30.9%, and 20.9%, respectively. The leading diagnoses in the urgent category were corneal abrasions, foreign bodies in the eyes, eye burns, and blunt eye injuries. The leading diagnoses for the non-urgent visits were conjunctivitis, subconjunctival hemorrhages, trichiasis, and dry eye disease. Those for the intermediate category were superficial punctate keratitis, corneal opacity and degeneration, and lid, orbital, and lacrimal drainage infections. The urgent visit category accounted for nearly half of all the visits identified in this study. Compared to outpatient department visitors, the emergency ophthalmology service patients were younger and more predominantly male. These results were consistent with those of previous reports. Low copays have made emergency ophthalmology services highly accessible in Taiwan. However, future policies can be designed to more effectively allocate resources to urgent cases.

The impact of COVID-19 related national lockdown on ophthalmic emergency in Italy: A multicenter study

“… 40 Furthermore, a nationwide survey conducted in Taiwan regarding the use of emergency ophthalmology services between 2008 and 2012 reported a percentage of urgent visits of 48.2%. 41 Considering the situation during the pandemic in Italy, Babu et al. 32 and Pellegrini et al 34 and reported that respectively 60% and 57.3% of cases presenting during the lockdown were unlikely to be emergency cases.…”

Adherence of those With Self-Reported Glaucoma in the United States to Eye Examination Visits

“…In multiple logistic regression analysis, we selected explanatory variables based on previous studies that have reported possible factors that may affect ophthalmology utilization. These variables included age, 29 sex, 29,30 marital status, 31 ethnicity, 23 educational level, personal income, 23 and health insurance status. 23,30 To determine whether ophthalmic visits and vision examinations were affected by eye conditions other than glaucoma, we included several other eye conditions in the analysis.…”

Utilization of inpatient ophthalmology services in Taiwan—A nationwide population study

“…This research attempted to probe and compare the difference between the landscape of admitted patients in those countries and Taiwan based on the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Additionally, with our previous studies that examined outpatient and emergent eye care services of Taiwan [ 5 , 6 ], we hope to complete the overall panorama of ophthalmology service in Taiwan. Hopefully, these insights might help guide policy decisions to improve resource allocation and enable better understanding of ophthalmic epidemiology.…”