title: Race/ethnicity-related and payer-related disparities in the timeliness of emergency care in U.S. emergency departments.
abstract: Our study objectives were to examine race/ethnicity-related and insurance-related differences in the timeliness of emergency care for a nationally representative sample of adults and to explore the role of uncertainty and location of care in explaining overall differences. We estimated a logistic regression model with hospital fixed effects to derive estimates of within-hospital group differences in the likelihood of waiting for more than 60 minutes to see a physician for several presenting conditions. We further estimated a model without hospital fixed effects to derive overall group differences. We observed race/ethnicity-related and payer-related differences in the timeliness of a medical screening exam for abdominal pain and chest pain visits but not for extremity laceration visits. Overall (within- and between-hospitals) differences in waiting time were due to patients receiving different care from the same hospital and from patients receiving care from different hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, The University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA. v.johnston@unf.edu
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Yuhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000191:economics* / Q000208:ethnology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D014850:Waiting Lists; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001741:Black or African American