Free clinics may help reduce unnecessary emergency department visits, according to a study published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved and reported by Penn State Live.
Researchers studied ED use over three years among patients who received primary care at free clinics and patients who did not. Researchers analyzed records of uninsured patients from five hospitals and four free clinics in Virginia. The hospitals are part of Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of America, which supported this research.
Patients who had been treated at free clinics associated with the hospitals in the first two years of the study accounted for approximately 10 percent of uninsured patients' ED visits.
The five most common diagnoses at ED admission were the same for patients who used the free clinics and those that didn't. However, the level of care required by these groups of patients differed. The authors wrote, "Emergency department visits by free clinic patients were less likely to require the lowest levels of care, suggesting uninsured free clinic users were less likely to use the emergency department as their primary care provider," according to the Penn State Live report. The researchers suggested free clinics providing primary care could reduce the number of unnecessary ED visits, according to the report.
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Researchers studied ED use over three years among patients who received primary care at free clinics and patients who did not. Researchers analyzed records of uninsured patients from five hospitals and four free clinics in Virginia. The hospitals are part of Nashville, Tenn.-based Hospital Corporation of America, which supported this research.
Patients who had been treated at free clinics associated with the hospitals in the first two years of the study accounted for approximately 10 percent of uninsured patients' ED visits.
The five most common diagnoses at ED admission were the same for patients who used the free clinics and those that didn't. However, the level of care required by these groups of patients differed. The authors wrote, "Emergency department visits by free clinic patients were less likely to require the lowest levels of care, suggesting uninsured free clinic users were less likely to use the emergency department as their primary care provider," according to the Penn State Live report. The researchers suggested free clinics providing primary care could reduce the number of unnecessary ED visits, according to the report.
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