title: Why parents use the emergency department during evening hours for nonemergent pediatric care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Emergency departments (EDs) are commonly used by pediatric patients for nonemergent reasons. There is little information regarding how parents perceive their use of the ED and primary care availability during evening hours.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a survey of parental perspectives of ED use during evening hours. Participants were parents of pediatric patients (age 0-18 years) at a large quaternary medical center's ED presenting between 17:00 and 22:00 hours from January 15, 2013 to March 12, 2013.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most patients had a primary care pediatrician (98/102, 96.1%); 80% of their pediatricians (78/98) did not have evening hour availability. Overall, 46.7% of parents would have preferred to go to their primary care pediatrician.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many parents who expect outpatient treatment prefer to take their child to a primary care pediatrician during evening hours, but present to the ED because of lack of primary care access.
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA khummel@email.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hummel
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: M Jane
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Mohler
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Conrad J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Clemens
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Burris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D039602:After-Hours Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001130:Arizona; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006300:Health Services Misuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: emergency department utilization; inappropriate use of health services; pediatric primary care; primary care office utilization