Department of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Biomedical Sciences Program, School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
P R Health Sci J. 2022 Jun;41(2):56-62.
To study the utilization of emergency room (ER) services for health complaints of the musculoskeletal (MSK) system in older men and women.
Data from all medical encounters at the ER of a teaching hospital for calendar years 2016-2020 were extracted from an electronic database. MSK encounters were defined as those with ICD 10-CM M and S codes in the primary diagnosis field of the database. Frequency distributions were calculated by year, sex, and age group for MSK and all encounters. The most frequent codes used by sex and age groups were assessed.
The number of unique patients with medical encounters at the ER during the five-year period was 94,346. There was a total of 220,153 encounters (median:1 encounter per patient; interquartile range:1-3). A 33.2% reduction in the number of encounters occurred in 2020 compared to 2019. The total number of unique patients in the 60 yr. and older group was 24,412 (25.9% of all unique patients). The total number of encounters in the group 60 yr. and older was 56,294 (25.6% of all encounters). Women accounted for 31,488 (56%) encounters in this age group. A total of 12,744 encounters (22.6%) in older adults involved the MSK system and this proportion decreased with increasing age. The most common MSK conditions included low back pain, pain in joints, and femoral fractures.
Older adults with MSK health conditions represent a substantial portion of ER patients. Many MSK health conditions could be evaluated and treated in other health care settings.
研究老年男性和女性因肌肉骨骼（MSK）系统健康问题就诊急诊室（ER）的服务利用情况。
从教学医院 ER 的电子数据库中提取 2016 年至 2020 年所有医疗就诊的资料。MSK 就诊被定义为数据库中主要诊断字段中具有 ICD-10-CM M 和 S 编码的就诊。按年份、性别和年龄组计算 MSK 和所有就诊的频率分布。评估了按性别和年龄组使用的最常见编码。
在五年期间，到 ER 就诊的独特患者人数为 94346 人。共有 220153 次就诊（中位数：每位患者 1 次就诊；四分位距：1-3 次）。与 2019 年相比，2020 年就诊次数减少了 33.2%。60 岁及以上组的独特患者总数为 24412 人（所有独特患者的 25.9%）。该组 60 岁及以上患者的就诊总数为 56294 次（所有就诊的 25.6%）。该年龄组的女性就诊占 31488 次（56%）。在老年人中，共有 12744 次就诊（22.6%）涉及肌肉骨骼系统，且该比例随年龄增长而降低。最常见的 MSK 疾病包括下腰痛、关节痛和股骨骨折。
有肌肉骨骼健康问题的老年人占 ER 患者的很大一部分。许多 MSK 健康问题可以在其他医疗保健环境中进行评估和治疗。
