Burt Catharine W, McCaig Linda F, Simon Alan E
Division of Health Care Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD 20782, USA.
Natl Health Stat Report. 2008 Jul 24(6):1-9.
Emergency department (ED) visits are rarely used as an outcome of prior hospitalization, but could be an indicator of poor inpatient care or follow-up planning.
To examine the rate and characteristics of ED visits of patients recently discharged from any hospital.
Data from the 2005 and 2006 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NHAMCS) and National Hospital Discharge Surveys (NHDS) were used to produce ratios of the numbers of ED visits where patients were discharged from any hospital within the last 7 days to the numbers of hospital discharges. NHAMCS, an annual survey of visits to U.S. hospital EDs, reported data for patients discharged from any hospital within 7 days previous to the ED visit. The NHDS is an annual survey of inpatient discharges from U.S. hospitals. Data from nonnewborn patients were weighted to produce national estimates.
About 2.3 million ED visits (2.0 percent of all visits) were made by persons who had been hospitalized within the last 7 days. This corresponds to 68 ED visits per 1000 live hospital discharges. About 10 percent of patients at these ED visits presented with medical or surgical complications that may have been related to their recent hospitalization. Uninsured persons were nearly three times as likely as those privately insured to make an ED visit following hospital discharge.
A large number of ED visits following recent hospitalization may be related to prior hospitalization. Returning to the ED after hospitalization may be an important measure to help improve inpatient care quality. Disparities in rates of ED visits following hospitalization may be attributed to differential inpatient or follow-up care.
急诊科就诊很少被用作先前住院治疗的结果指标，但可能是住院护理不佳或后续规划的一个指标。
研究近期从任何医院出院的患者的急诊科就诊率及特征。
使用2005年和2006年的国家医院门诊医疗护理调查（NHAMCS）及国家医院出院调查（NHDS）的数据，计算过去7天内从任何医院出院的患者的急诊科就诊次数与医院出院次数的比率。NHAMCS是一项对美国医院急诊科就诊情况的年度调查，报告了在急诊科就诊前7天内从任何医院出院的患者的数据。NHDS是一项对美国医院住院患者出院情况的年度调查。对非新生儿患者的数据进行加权处理以得出全国估计数。
在过去7天内住院的患者进行了约230万次急诊科就诊（占所有就诊次数的2.0%）。这相当于每1000例实际出院患者中有68次急诊科就诊。在这些急诊科就诊的患者中，约10%出现了可能与其近期住院治疗有关的医疗或手术并发症。未参保者在出院后到急诊科就诊的可能性几乎是参保者的三倍。
近期住院后大量的急诊科就诊可能与先前的住院治疗有关。住院后返回急诊科可能是帮助提高住院护理质量的一项重要措施。住院后急诊科就诊率的差异可能归因于住院护理或后续护理的差异。
