Characteristics and outcomes of older patients attending the emergency department at an academic university hospital

Abstract

Objective: Because older populations have been increased significantly over the last decades globally, emergency departments (ED) have become a vital place in the care of older patients. Characterizing the usage of the ED by older patients will facilitate the qualifying planning activities in emergency care delivery. Method: The retrospective data were extracted from a database and included all patients, aged 65 years or over, admitted to the ED between 1 January 2017- 31 December 2017. Results: The rate of ED visits accounted for 16.1%. A large majority of the ED visits were during the day shift (49.6 %), and in summer months (June-August 28.7 %). The most common diagnoses (18.4%) were cardiovascular conditions. A large majority (67.8%) of ED visits involved diagnostic imaging and nearly half (46.7%) of them received consultation services. Nearly one-third (31.3%) of older patients were admitted to hospital following their ED visit. Hospital admission, length of stay in ED, having consulting service, involving some kind of diagnostic imaging and being triaged as urgent/emergent are more likely to be increased with age group. Conclusions: ED visits increase with age and also the resource use intensity of the ED, including the length of stay, diagnostic imaging, consultation and admission to the hospital after an ED visit appears to increase with ageing. Patterns of the ED usage were described in this study may be helpful in resource planning, or may provide an approach for the future the investigation involving improved or alternative care options for the older patient.