The impact of needle exchange-based health services on emergency department use

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of the New Haven Community Health Care Van (CHCV), a mobile needle exchange-based health care delivery system, in reducing emergency department (ED) use among out-of-treatment injection drug users (IDUs) between January 1, 1996 and December 31, 1998. DESIGN: A pre-post comparison of ED utilization was performed using linked medical records from New Haven's only two emergency departments. Fixed-effect negative binomial regression analysis was used to explore the impact of the CHCV on ED use within a longitudinal cohort. SETTING: Mobile health clinic in New Haven, Conn. PARTICIPANTS: Out-of-treatment IDUs. INTERVENTION: Acute care, linkages to medical, drug treatment, and social services. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Among 373 IDUs, 117 (31%) were CHCV clients, and 256 had not used CHCV services. At baseline, CHCV users were more frequent users of ED services (P