ED Utilization Data Reveal Where Urgent Care Could Make an Impact—and Draw Young Patients

A team of researchers who sought to understand what insights could be gleaned from studying emergency room utilization measures wound up revealing data that could be useful for urgent care operators seeking to bolster their pediatric services. A study just published in The American Journal of Managed Care considered whether ED visit count and ED reliance could be used to identify clinically or demographically different populations of children. Of interest to urgent care operators is information they turned up regarding which children visit the ED most frequently. The results were drawn from ED visits by 5.4 million children and adolescents using IBM Health/Truven MarketScan Medicaid data. Most of the subjects (65%) were without chronic disease (WO-CD); 32% had noncomplex chronic disease (NC-CD); and 3% had complex chronic disease (C-CD). Examples of NC-CD included asthma, obesity, diabetes, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and depression. The WO-CD category reflected children who were otherwise healthy beyond the acute presenting complaint (eg, otitis media, bronchitis). C-CD included significant chronic disease in two organ systems, a progressive condition associated with deteriorating health, continuous dependence on technology, or malignancy. The conclusions aligned well with the level of care urgent care is known for, with the highest ED reliance among children without chronic disease (68%), followed by those with noncomplex chronic disease (30%). Children with complex chronic disease made up only 2% of the high ED reliance group. Use this information to ensure your messaging addresses the concerns of parents who might be inclined to take their child to the ED when urgent care would likely be a safe, lower cost, more efficient option for the vast majority of younger patients.