Trends and characteristics of potentially preventable emergency department visits among patients with cancer in the US
Dr. Amir Alishahi Tabriz
An initial step to reducing emergeny department (ED) visits among patients with cancer is to identify the characteristics of patients visiting the ED and examine which of these visits could be prevented. A cross-sectional study using data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey investigated ED visits from 2012 to 2019. Using the Emergency Severity Index, more than half of these visits were deemed to be potentially preventable. From 2012 to 2019, the absolute number of potentially preventable ED visits increased substantially, by more than 75%. There was no significant change in the percentage of ED visits resulting in hospitalization (p=0.78 for trend).
