Walker L L
JACEP. 1976 Feb;5(2):105-10. doi: 10.1016/s0361-1124(76)80187-6.
This study attempted to measure whether patients using two hospital services -- inpatient facilities and the emergency department -- were representative of the population. It sought to confirm the assumptions that, if patient demands were uniform and there were no barriers to emergency department use: (1) emergency patients would closely represent the population in the geographic service area of the hospital, and (2) factors such as distance from residence, age, marital status, social class, and sex, would be relatively uniform between inpatients and emergency patients. The first assumption was supported by the results of the study. Concerning the second, the 0- to 19-year-old group had a high emergency department utilization and low utilization of inpatient facilities when 35- to 65-year-old group had a lower emergency department and a higher inpatient usage pattern. The 65-year-old and over group had two and one-half times as many inpatient admissions as their number in the general service area would suggest. More men than women used the emergency department. Separated and divorced people were heavy users of the emergency department whereas widows heavily used inpatient facilities. Social class was not found to be significantly different among those using the inpatient service or emergency department.
本研究试图衡量使用医院两种服务——住院设施和急诊科——的患者是否具有人群代表性。研究旨在证实以下假设：如果患者需求一致且使用急诊科没有障碍，那么：（1）急诊患者将与医院地理服务区内的人群密切相似；（2）住院患者和急诊患者在距离住所远近、年龄、婚姻状况、社会阶层和性别等因素方面相对一致。该研究结果支持了第一个假设。关于第二个假设，0至19岁年龄组急诊科利用率高，住院设施利用率低，而35至65岁年龄组急诊科利用率较低，住院使用率较高。65岁及以上年龄组的住院人数是其在一般服务区人数的2.5倍。使用急诊科的男性多于女性。分居和离婚者大量使用急诊科，而寡妇则大量使用住院设施。在使用住院服务或急诊科的人群中，未发现社会阶层存在显著差异。
