Table 1.
Descriptive statistics of study patients
| ED site | Patient characteristics | All | Internal | External | p Value* |
| A | Observation period (months) | 34 | |||
| Number of patients (%) | 2077 | 1327 (63.9) | 750 (36.1) | ||
| Mean age (SD), years | 75.7 (14.4) | 75.3 (14.1) | 76.3 (15.1) | 0.01 | |
| Female (%) | 53.4 | 53.4 | 53.3 | 0.99 | |
| Married (%) | 39.8 | 42.7 | 34.6 | <0.001 | |
| Race, white (%) | 87.6 | 89.9 | 83.4 | <0.001 | |
| Mean Charlson comorbidity index (SD) | 3.3 (2.0) | 3.4 (2.0) | 3.2 (1.9) | 0.13 | |
| Hospitalization rate (%) | 94.7 | 93.2 | 97.2 | <0.001 | |
| B | Observation period (months) | 19 | |||
| Number of patients (%) | 1686 | 1448 (85.9) | 238 (14.1) | ||
| Mean age (SD), years | 72.3 (15.6) | 72.5 (15.4) | 71.0 (16.5) | 0.26 | |
| Female (%) | 50.7 | 51.7 | 44.1 | 0.03 | |
| Married (%) | 37.1 | 36.4 | 42.7 | 0.09 | |
| Race, white (%) | 79.3 | 79.8 | 65.9 | 0.03 | |
| Mean Charlson comorbidity index (SD) | 3.8 (2.3) | 3.8 (2.3) | 3.7 (2.4) | 0.14 | |
| Hospitalization rate (%) | 96.7 | 96.5 | 97.8 | 0.33 | |
| C | Observation period (months) | 34 | |||
| Number of patients (%) | 1403 | 1199 (85.5) | 204 (14.5) | ||
| Mean age (SD), years | 79.1 (12.0) | 79.7 (11.6) | 75.7 (13.7) | <0.001 | |
| Female (%) | 53.2 | 53.9 | 49.0 | 0.20 | |
| Married (%) | 45.2 | 46.6 | 37.1 | 0.01 | |
| Race, white (%) | 96.3 | 97.0 | 91.9 | <0.001 | |
| Mean Charlson comorbidity index (SD) | 2.9 (1.9) | 2.9 (2.0) | 2.6 (1.5) | 0.11 | |
| Hospitalization rate (%) | 61.4 | 61.6 | 59.8 | 0.62 |
*
Wilcoxon's rank sum test or χ2 test.
ED, emergency department.