Abstract
BackgroundSome patients visit a hospital’s emergency department (ED) for reasons other than an urgent medical condition. There is evidence that this practice may differ among patients from different backgrounds. The objective of this study was to examine the reasons why patients from a non-English speaking background (NESB) and patients with an English speaking background but not born in Australia (ESB-NBA) visit the ED, as compared to patients from English-speaking backgrounds but born in Australia (ESB-BA).MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted at the ED of a tertiary hospital in metropolitan Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Over a four-month period patients who were assigned an Australasian Triage Scale score of 3, 4 or 5 were surveyed. Pearson chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the differences between the ESB and NESB patients’ reported reasons for attending the ED.ResultsA total of 828 patients participated in this study. Compared to ESB-BA patients NESB patients were less likely to consider contacting a general practitioner (GP) before attending the ED (Odds Ratios (OR) 0.6 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.4–0.8, p < .05) While ESB-NBA were more likely to consider contacting a GP 1.7 (1.1–2.5, p < .05). Both the NESB patients and the ESB-NBA patients were far more likely than ESB-BA patients to report that they had visited the ED either because they do not have a GP (OR 7.9, 95% CI 4.7–13.4, p < .001) and 2.2 (95% CI 1.1–4.4, p < .05) respectively and less likely to think that the ED could deal with their problem better than a GP (OR 0.5 (95% CI 0.3–0.8, p < .05) and 0.7 (0.3–0.9, p < .05) respectively. The NESB patients also thought it would take too long to make an appointment to consult a GP (OR 6.2, 95% CI 3.7–10.4, p < 0.001).ConclusionsNESB patients were the least likely to consider contacting a GP before attending hospital EDs. Educational interventions may help direct NESB people to the appropriate health services and therefore reduce the burden on tertiary hospitals ED.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12873-015-0031-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Some patients visit a hospital’s emergency department (ED) for reasons other than an urgent medical condition
This study aimed to investigate the subjective reasons why immigrants to Australia (NESB patients and English speaking background not born in Australia (ESB-NBA)), compared to English-speaking background born in Australia (ESB-BA) patients, attended the tertiary hospital ED at Brisbane, Australia
non-English speaking background (NESB) patients who had been in Australia less than 2 years were least likely to consider contacting a general practitioner (GP) 7 (15.7%, 95% CI 7.8–28.8) compared to those who had been in Australia for more than 5 years 67 (47.5%, 95% CI 39.5–55.8), p = .001 (Table 3)
Summary
Several international studies have suggested that immigrants, those from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) might use emergency departments EDs inappropriately [1,2,3]. These studies identified several potential barriers confronting immigrants when accessing health care. In Australia, no studies have been conducted on either the reasons of non-English speaking background (NESB) patients for seeking medical care from the ED or the barriers they face when accessing health services in general. Understanding these reasons might help in developing policies and educational interventions that promote NESB patients’ access to appropriate health care facilities that meet their needs
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