Dental Conditions Rank High in Avoidable Emergency Visits
A study based on data collected over a 6 year period and detailing 424 million visits to emergency departments in the U.S. concluded that 3.5% of all of these visits were avoidable.
Avoidable is defined as those cases where there was no requirement of diagnostic or screening services, procedures or medications and the patients were discharged home.
Of these avoidable visits, the top three discharge diagnoses were alcohol abuse, dental disorders and mood disorders such as anxiety or depression.
“Emergency physicians are trained to treat life-and limb-threatening emergencies, making it inefficient for patients with mental health, substance abuse or dental disorders to be treated in this setting.”
These findings suggest that pressure on U.S. emergency departments can be alleviated by addressing gaps of dental and mental healthcare in order to treat this group of emergency department visitors elsewhere at a lower cost, rather than penalizing patients for lack of access.
Read more about this study in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care (2017).
Leave a reply →
