If a nurse directed patients away from a hospital emergency department based on seemingly “non emergency” complaints, 93 percent of the patients sent away wouldn’t have had illnesses that primary could treat.
Dr. Maria Raven, lead author of a study being released Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, uses that stark analogy to illustrate the difficulty of determining a “non emergency” without appropriate screening in the emergency department.
The small number ultimately discharged with diagnoses that could have been treated in primary care generally arrive at the ER with the same symptoms as other patients who need immediate or emergency care, hospital admission or surgery, according to the study results.
The American College of Emergency Physicians is highlighting that study in its battle against the practice of insurance companies, including Medicaid, to deny payment for visits deemed “non emergency.” That practice could discourage patients with true emergencies from visiting the ER, the college said.
“The majority of Medicaid patients, who stand to be disproportionately affected by such policies, visit the emergency department for urgent or more serious problems,” Raven said in a release about the study.