Table 2.
Demographic Characteristics and Resource Utilization for Patient Visits for URI in the ED Compared to Outpatient Settings
| Characteristic | ED Total | ED URI Estimate, % (95% CI) |
Clinic Total | Clinic URI Estimate, % (95% CI) |
p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 4,903 | 18,169,810 (16,252,001–20,087,619) | 3,866 | 150,116,694 (132,907,097–167,326,291) | 0.001 |
| Mean age, yr | — | 36.8 (36.2–37.4) | — | 46.8 (45.9–47.7) | 0.001 |
| Race/ethnicity | |||||
| White | 3,329 | 67.5 (63.2–71.6) | 3,227 | 85.1 (82.4–87.4) | 0.001 |
| Black | 1,397 | 29.4 (25.4–33.7) | 416 | 9.7 (7.7–12.1) | 0.001 |
| Other | 177 | 3.1 (2.3–4.2) | 223 | 5.2 (3.8–7.1) | 0.002 |
| Payer status | |||||
| Private insurance | 1,869 | 37.8 (35.5–40.2) | 2,675 | 75.3 (72.7–77.7) | 0.001 |
| Medicare | 516 | 11.0 (9.7–12.5) | 624 | 16.4 (14.7–18.4) | 0.001 |
| Medicaid | 1,346 | 26.7 (24.5–29.0) | 399 | 7.6 (6.4–8.9) | 0.001 |
| Self-pay | 1,081 | 22.7 (20.4–25.2) | 316 | 6.3 (5.0–7.9) | 0.001 |
| Other pay | 336 | 6.9 (5.4–8.7) | 229 | 4.3 (3.0–6.2) | 0.037 |
| Region | |||||
| Northeast | 1,147 | 18.5 (15.7–21.6) | 762 | 19.1 (15.6–23.2) | 0.41 |
| Midwest | 1,051 | 21.6 (17.3–26.5) | 946 | 23.0 (18.8–27.8) | |
| South | 1,892 | 43.7 (38.5–49.0) | 1,319 | 39.3 (33.9–45.1) | |
| West | 813 | 16.3 (12.7–20.8) | 839 | 18.6 (14.8–23.0) | |
| MSA | |||||
| MSA | 4,108 | 80.3 (68.5–88.4) | 3,365 | 87.5 (79.2–92.8) | 0.001 |
| Non-MSA | 795 | 19.7 (11.6–31.5) | 501 | 12.5 (7.2–20.8) | |
| Provider seen | |||||
| Patient’s primary care physician | — | — | 2,346 | 69.4 (64.5–73.9) | — |
| Midlevel provider | 910 | 6.1 (5.6–6.8) | 240 | 4.4 (3.6–5.3) | 0.001 |
| Resident/intern | 336 | 3.4 (2.9–3.9) | — | — | |
| Resource use | |||||
| Blood labs | 975 | 21.2 (19.2–23.2) | 468 | 14.2 (11.9–16.8) | 0.001 |
| Any imaging | 1,311 | 27.3 (25.2–29.5) | 310 | 7.8 (6.3–9.7) | 0.001 |
| CT | 160 | 4.2 (3.5–5.1) | 85 | 1.6 (1.1–2.2) | 0.001 |
| X-ray | 1,171 | 24.5 (22.5–26.7) | 162 | 4.8 (3.5–6.6) | 0.001 |
| Weekend or nonbusiness hours | 3,273 | 67.6 (65.8–69.3) | — | — | — |
| Commonly used medications | |||||
| Fluoroquinolones | 5.3 (4.7–6.1) | 391 | 10.9 (9.6–12.3) | 0.001 | |
| Penicillins | 17.3 (15.8–18.8) | 605 | 16.0 (14.2–17.9) | 0.3 | |
| Cephalosporins | 309 | 7.3 (5.9–8.9) | 157 | 4.9 (3.4–6.9) | 0.02 |
| Macrolides | 1,073 | 21.2 (19.7–22.8) | 715 | 20.6 (18.5–22.8) | 0.63 |
| Other antibiotics | 127 | 2.1 (1.6–2.6) | 56 | 1.3 (0.9–1.8) | 0.03 |
| Beta agonists | 531 | 11.1 (10.0–12.4) | 208 | 4.8 (3.9–5.9) | 0.001 |
| Oral/IV steroids | 389 | 7.9 (6.8–9.1) | 149 | 3.7 (2.9–4.8) | 0.001 |
| Topical steroids | 72 | 1.2 (1.3–2.3) | 156 | 3.8 (2.9–4.9) | 0.001 |
| Antipyretics | 699 | 14.5 (13.1–16.1) | 209 | 5.7 (4.5–7.2) | 0.001 |
| NSAIDs | 1,006 | 20.6 (18.6–22.8) | 258 | 6.3 (5.3–7.5) | 0.001 |
| Decongestant | 73 | 1.7 (1.2–2.3) | 207 | 6.3 (4.8–8.1) | 0.001 |
| Any antibiotic | 2,640 | 54.2 (52.2–56.3) | 2,022 | 55.0 (52.3–57.6) | 0.67 |
MSA = metropolitan statistical area; NSAIDs = nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; URI = upper respiratory infection.
*
Insufficient cell sizes for generating reliable national-level estimates per National Center for Health Statistics guidelines.