Table 4.
Miscellaneous Factors Associated with Non-Urgent Use (n=16)**
| Factors | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reference | Marital Status | Health Status | Previous Healthcare Experiences | Convenience | Access | Referral/ Advice |
Beliefs and knowledge about alternatives |
| Cunningham (1995)22 | Poor health greater likelihood than excellent health (OR: 2.17) | Average number of visits in an outpatient setting other than the ED higher for persons with non-urgent ED visits versus persons with only outpatient physician visits (5.6 vs. 4.8) | |||||
| Davis (2010)43 | Adult without chronic conditions greater likelihood than those with a chronic condition (ORs: 1.11–1.67) | ||||||
| Harris Interactive (2005)15 | No association | No association | Non-urgent ED users (27%) more likely to not want to miss work than all ED users (15%) | Having a regular physician higher among non-urgent ED users vs. all ED users (35% vs. 27%) | Non-urgent ED users (20%) more likely than all ED users to think other places are more expensive than the ED (12%) | ||
| Han (2003)47 | No association | No recent hospitalization associated with higher odds of non-urgent ED visit (OR: 1.85) More frequent ED visits associated with increased odds of non-urgent ED visit (OR: 1.16) No association (number of primary care visits) | No association (self-reported difficulty getting healthcare) | ||||
| Petersen 1998)44 | No association | No association | Persons without a regular physician greater likelihood than those with one (OR: 1.6) | ||||
| Sarver (2002)46 | Poor health greater likelihood than good health (OR: 2.94) | Persons who said it was difficult to obtain an appt with their usual source of care more likely (9%) than not difficult (5%) Persons with a wait time of more than an hour at their usual source of care more likely (9%) than no appt needed (5%) | Dissatisfaction with regular source of care associated with non-urgent visit (OR: 1.13) | ||||
| Shesser (1991)37 | No association | ||||||
| Young (1996)39 | Patients with a usual source of care more likely to be assessed as urgent (55%) compared to those without (46%) | Referred to the ED more likely to be assessed as urgent (61%) than not referred (49%) | |||||
*
The majority of finding in the table are completed by adding the phrase “to have a non-urgent ED visit.”
**
If an article (n=16) did not contain any of the factors listed in the table, it was not included in the table
***
Only statistically significant findings are reported (p<.05). Non-significant findings are reported as “no association.”