Profile and motivation of patients consulting in emergency departments while not requiring such a level of care

Abstract

Consultations that do not require an emergency department (ED) level of care have increased. We explored attitudes of non-urgent patients in two academic hospitals in France with a similar fast track organization. One of them is a Parisian hospital with 90,000 patients/year who are admitted to the ED, while the other admits 40,000 patients/year in a smaller city. During one month in 2018, the triage nurse handed out a survey to patients coming for non-urgent consultations. It was given back to the fast track physician at the end of the visit; 598 patients agreed to answer. They were mostly young males with adequate social coverage, consulting for osteo-articular pathologies, without any significant difference between the two sites (p = 0.32). They were equally satisfied with the care they received (p = 0.38). Satisfaction was inversely correlated to waiting time (p < 0.0001). Convenience, accessibility of emergency facilities, and geographic proximity were motivation factors. These results suggest that primary care providers who can access testing facilities in accordance with patient needs might be a solution to help reduce overcrowding in EDs.