A Descriptive Study of Emergency Department Visits Within 30 Days of Discharge

Abstract

Background Unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits are a crucial consideration in discharge planning for acutely admitted patients. This study aimed to identify the reasons for unnecessary visits to the ED within 30 days of discharge from a medical hospitalist unit. Methods We performed a retrospective review of patients discharged in 2018 from a medical unit of tertiary teaching hospital in Korea. The authors discussed in-depth and determined whether or not an ED visit was unnecessary, and further classified the causes of unnecessary visits into three categories. Results The mean age of the patients was 62.9 years (range, 15–99 years), and among the 1,343 patients discharged from the unit, 720 (53.6%) were men. Overall, 215 patients (16.0%) visited the ED within 30 days after discharge; among them, 16.3% were readmitted. Of the 215 cases of ED visits within 30 days after discharge, 57 (26.5%) were considered unnecessary. Of these, 30 (52.6%) were categorized as having failed care transition, 15 (26.3%) had unestablished care plans for predictable issues, and 12 (21.1%) had insufficient patient education. Conclusion A substantial number of short-term ED visits by discharged multimorbid or older medical patients were considered unnecessary. Discharging patients with a thorough discharge plan is essential to avoid unnecessary ED visits.

Keywords

• patient discharge
• patient readmission
• geriatrics
• multimorbidity
• hospital medicine