title: The emergency department as usual source of medical care: estimates from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey.
abstract: In emergency medicine, there is an ongoing debate regarding patients who use the emergency department (ED) as their usual source of medical care-an arguably costly and inefficient pattern of utilization. However, there are few accurate national data on the prevalence of such usage. This analysis uses the 1998 National Health Interview Survey to estimate the number of Americans who name the ED as their usual source of care, and compares their characteristics with those who have a usual source of care other than the ED. Poverty, lack of insurance, younger age, male gender, and minority race or ethnicity predicted identifying the ED as the usual source of care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA. c-walls@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Craig A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Walls
authors.forename: Karin V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.forename: Jae J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kennedy
mesh_terms: D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States