scholarly journals Cancer-related Emergency Department Visits: Comparing Characteristics and Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 1117-1123
Author(s):  
Rahul Nene ◽  
Jesse Brennan ◽  
Edward Castillo ◽  
Peter Tran ◽  
Renee Hsia ◽  
...  

Introduction: There is increasing appreciation of the challenges of providing safe and appropriate care to cancer patients in the emergency department (ED). Our goal here was to assess which patient characteristics are associated with more frequent ED revisits. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of all ED visits in California during the 2016 calendar year using data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. We defined revisits as a return visit to an ED within seven days of the index visit. For both index and return visits, we assessed various patient characteristics, including age, cancer type, medical comorbidities, and ED disposition. Results: Among 12.9 million ED visits, we identified 73,465 adult cancer patients comprising 103,523 visits that met our inclusion criteria. Cancer patients had a 7-day revisit rate of 17.9% vs 13.2% for non-cancer patients. Cancer patients had a higher rate of admission upon 7-day revisit (36.7% vs 15.6%). Patients with cancers of the small intestine, stomach, and pancreas had the highest rate of 7-day revisits (22-24%). Cancer patients younger than 65 had a higher 7-day revisit rate than the elderly (20.0% vs 16.2%). Conclusion: In a review of all cancer-related ED visits in the state of California, we found a variety of characteristics associated with a higher rate of 7-day ED revisits. Our goal in this study was to inform future research to identify interventions on the index visit that may improve patient outcomes.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 215013272092627
Author(s):  
Julia Ellbrant ◽  
Jonas Åkeson ◽  
Helena Sletten ◽  
Jenny Eckner ◽  
Pia Karlsland Åkeson

Aims: Pediatric emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a challenge. This study was designed to evaluate if a hospital-integrated primary care unit (HPCU) reduces less urgent visits at a pediatric ED. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out at a university hospital in Sweden, where the HPCU, open outside office hours, had been integrated next to the ED. Children seeking ED care during 4-week high- and low-load study periods before (2012) and after (2015) implementation of the HPCU were included. Information on patient characteristics, ED management, and length of ED stay was obtained from hospital data registers. Results: In total, 3216 and 3074 ED patient visits were recorded in 2012 and 2015, respectively. During opening hours of the HPCU, the proportions of pediatric ED visits (28% lower; P < .001), visits in the lowest triage group (36% lower; P < .001), patients presenting with fever ( P = .001) or ear pain ( P < .001), and nonadmitted ED patients ( P = .033), were significantly lower in 2015 than in 2012, whereas the proportion of infants ≤3 months was higher in 2015 ( P < .001). Conclusions: By enabling adjacent management of less urgent pediatric patients at adequate lower levels of medical care, implementation of a HPCU outside office hours may contribute to fewer and more appropriate pediatric ED visits.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 6579-6579
Author(s):  
Vikram Jairam ◽  
Daniel X. Yang ◽  
James B. Yu ◽  
Henry S. Park

6579 Background: Patients with cancer may be at high risk of opioid dependence due to physical and psychosocial factors, although little data exists to inform providers and policymakers. Our aim is to examine overdoses from prescription and synthetic opiates leading to emergency department (ED) visits among patients with cancer in the United States. Methods: The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (HCUP-NEDS) was queried for all patient visits with a primary diagnosis of prescription or synthetic opioid overdose between 2006 and 2015. Baseline differences between patients with and without cancer were assessed using chi-square and ANOVA testing. Overdose rates by primary cancer site were normalized using prevalence data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. Weighted frequencies were used to create national estimates for all data analyses. Results: There were 682,820 weighted ED visits for synthetic opioid overdose, among which 34,547 (5.1%) visits were also associated with a diagnosis of cancer. During this timeframe, ED visits for opioid overdose among patients with cancer increased 2.5-fold, compared to 1.7-fold among those without cancer. 16.5% of patients with cancer had metastatic disease. Patients with cancer presenting for opioid overdose had higher risk of hospital admission (74.8% vs 49.6%), respiratory intubation (13.2% vs 12.2%), mortality (2.1% vs 1.1%), and cost-of-hospital-stay ($32,665 vs $31,824) compared to their non-cancer counterparts (all P < 0.05). Primary cancers with the highest normalized overdose rates (ED visits per 10,000 patients) were esophagus (134), liver & intrahepatic bile duct (124), and cervical cancer (124). Other common cancers had the following normalized overdose rates: lung (105), head and neck (70), and breast (26). Conclusions: Approximately 5% of all ED visits due to prescription and synthetic opioid overdose are among patients with cancer. The rate of increase in ED visits due to opioid overdose from cancer patients was nearly 50% higher than that from non-cancer patients over the 10-year study period. Patients with esophageal, liver, and cervical cancer may be at highest risk.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 609-609
Author(s):  
Joel E Segel ◽  
Eric W. Schaefer ◽  
Jay D. Raman ◽  
Christopher S. Hollenbeak

609 Background: As payers turn to alternative payment models, including the CMS Oncology Care Model, risk-adjusted emergency department (ED) visits are being incorporated as a quality. Yet little is know about this metric compares to existing metrics such as risk-adjusted mortality rates and costs. Methods: Using 2007-2012 SEER-Medicare data, we used logistic regression to model occurrence of an ED visit within 30 and 365 days for all kidney cancer patients receiving initial surgery. Our model controlled for demographics, stage, histology, systemic targeted therapy, and comorbidities. Based on model predictions, we created a ratio of actual versus predicted ED visits for hospitals to identify hospitals with higher and lower than predicted ED visit rates. We estimated the association between the hospitals’ ED visit ratio and hospitals’ risk-adjusted 365-day mortality rates, and 6- and 12-month total costs and total costs (less ED visits). Results: In our sample of 6,078 patients, 15.5% had an ED visit within 30 days of surgery and 43.5% within 365 days. For hospitals with ≥10 patients, we found no statistically significant association between 30-day or 365-day risk-adjusted ED visit rate and their 365-day risk-adjusted mortality rate. While hospitals’ 30-day ED visit rates were significantly associated with 6- and 12-month costs, the association was largely driven by the cost of the ED visit itself. Conversely, hospitals’ 365-day ED visit rates were significantly associated with 12-month costs after excluding the cost of the ED visit. Conclusions: Our results suggest hospitals’ risk-adjusted ED visit rates capture a qualitatively different measure of quality than the more commonly reported mortality rates and is significantly associated with patient cost.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (34_suppl) ◽  
pp. 143-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan McInnes ◽  
Cheryl M Carrino ◽  
Laura Shoemaker

143 Background: The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is a novel 5-year quality-based Oncology payment and care delivery program established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service in 2016. OCM prioritizes high-quality, coordinated care for patients undergoing chemotherapy (chemo pts.) Participating centers provide augmented services to enhance care and meet quality goals. Challenging symptoms (sxs) are common among chemo pts and may lead to hospitalization and decreased quality of life. Specialist palliative care teams are not able to see all chemo pts with active sxs. Front line oncology care teams (FLC) need education on primary palliative sx management. Methods: Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute is one of 181 practices voluntarily participating in OCM. Locations include main campus and 5 regional cancer offices with 100 oncologists caring for about 4,000 chemotherapy patients annually. Our OCM team engaged Oncology (Onc) and Palliative Medicine (PM) providers to standardize sx management. Education was provided to FLC of all disciplines. Electronic record analytics were used to determine emergency department (ED) utilization. Results: A multidisciplinary team of Onc and PM experts developed guidelines for 4 common sxs (chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, persistent cancer pain, nausea/vomiting and constipation. Guidelines were approved by key Onc and PM staff and made available to all providers online. There were 4 educational sessions for FLCs to all sites in 2017. Urgent sx outpatient appointment slots were created in oncology offices to address uncontrolled sx. From Dec 2017 to May 2018, ED visits for all cancer patients at main campus decreased from 500/month to 453/month (9.4%.) Reductions in ED visits were also seen at 2 hospitals adjacent to regional cancer centers (16% and 6%.) Conclusions: OCM participation provided an opportunity to improve care quality at our institution. Primary palliative sx guidelines were successfully developed by an interdisciplinary team and disseminated to FLC. Urgent sx management appointments were made available in oncology offices. These interventions coincided with a reduction in ED visits for all cancer patients.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Yuan Huang ◽  
Chia-Sui Weng ◽  
Hsiao-Li Kuo ◽  
Yung-Cheng Su

BACKGROUND A chatbot is an automatic text-messaging tool that creates a dynamic interaction and simulates a human conversation through text or voice via smartphones or computers. A chatbot could be an effective solution for cancer patients’ follow-up during treatment, and could save time for healthcare providers. OBJECTIVE We conducted a retrospective cohort pilot study to evaluate whether a chatbot-based collection of patient-reported symptoms during chemotherapy, with automated alerts to clinicians, could decrease emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. A control group received usual care. METHODS Self-reporting symptoms were communicated via the chatbot, a Facebook Messenger-based interface for patients with gynecologic malignancies. The chatbot included questions about common symptoms experienced during chemotherapy. Patients could also use the text-messaging feature to speak directly to the chatbot, and all reported outcomes were monitored by a cancer manager. The primary and secondary outcomes of the study were emergency department visits and unscheduled hospitalizations after initiation of chemotherapy after diagnosis of gynecologic malignancies. Multivariate Poisson regression models were applied to assess the adjusted incidence rate ratios (aIRRs) for chatbot use for ED visits and unscheduled hospitalizations after controlling for age, cancer stage, type of malignancy, diabetes, hypertension, chronic renal insufficiency, and coronary heart disease. RESULTS Twenty patients were included in the chatbot group, and 43 in the usual-care group. Significantly lower aIRRs for chatbot use for ED visits (0.27; 95% CI 0.11–0.65; p=0.003) and unscheduled hospitalizations (0.31; 95% CI 0.11–0.88; p=0.028) were noted. Patients using the chatbot approach had lower aIRRs of ED visits and unscheduled hospitalizations compared to usual-care patients. CONCLUSIONS The chatbot was helpful for reducing ED visits and unscheduled hospitalizations in patients with gynecologic malignancies who were receiving chemotherapy. These findings are valuable for inspiring the future design of digital health interventions for cancer patients.


Author(s):  
Timothy Anderson ◽  
Robert L Thombley ◽  
Grace A Lin

Background: Syncope is a common reason for emergency department visits. Guidelines suggest minimal initial workup, including history, physical exam, and ECG testing. Additional cardiac testing is recommended in only high risk patients and neuroimaging is rarely indicated. Because of the low yield of neuroimaging, in 2012, the Choosing Wisely campaign recommended against its use for syncope. Our objective was to examine trends in cardiac testing and neuroimaging of patients presenting to the ED with syncope, before and after the Choosing Wisely recommendations and to describe hospital variation in testing rates. Methods: We linked State Inpatient and Emergency Department Databases to conduct a retrospective study of all ED visits in 2009 and 2013 for 8 states reporting procedure utilization. We calculated rates of ECG, advanced cardiac testing (echocardiogram, stress testing, diagnostic catheterization) and neuroimaging (head CT, brain MRI, carotid ultrasound) for all adults with a discharge diagnosis of syncope. Differences between years were estimated using mixed effect regression modeling adjusted for patient characteristics, comorbidities, and hospital random effects. Results: We identified 287,261 ED visits for syncope in 2009 and 315,221 ED visits in 2013 from 676 hospitals. Between 2009 and 2013, adjusted rates of ECG testing increased from 81.1% of discharges to 84.3% (p<.0001). Rates of advanced cardiac testing increased from 10.3% to 12.4% (p<.0001), driven primarily by a substantial increase in the use of echocardiograms (8.3% vs 11.3%, p<.0001). Rates of neuroimaging increased from 36.0% to 42.0% (p<.0001) with increased utilization of all tests. Rates of ECG, advanced cardiac testing and neuroimaging varied significantly between hospitals in both years (Figure). The median hospital-level change in testing between years was 1.6% (IQR -3.5 to 11.2) for ECG, 1.2% (IQR -1.8 to 5.9) for advanced cardiac imaging and 4.2% (IQR -5.3 to 18.4) for neuroimaging. Conclusions: Among patients presenting to the ED with syncope, rates of both high- and low-value diagnostic testing increased between 2009 and 2013, with substantial variation between hospitals. Thus, the 2012 Choosing Wisely recommendations do not appear to have had a significant effect on testing for patients presenting with syncope.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3.5) ◽  
pp. EPR19-069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyana Kurteva ◽  
Robyn Tamblyn ◽  
Ari Meguerditchian

Background: Prescription opioid use and overdose has steadily increased over the past years, resulting in a dramatic increase in opioid-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Methods: This study used a prospective cohort of cancer patients having undergone surgery in Montreal (Quebec) to describe their post-discharge opioid use and identify potential patterns of unplanned health service use (ED visits, hospitalizations). Provincial health administrative claims were used to measure opioid dispensation as well as hospital re-admissions and ED visits. The hospital warehouse, patient chart and patient interview will be used to further describe patient’s medical profile. Marginal structural models will be used to model the association between use of opioids and risk of ED visits and hospitalizations. Inverse probability of treatment and censoring weights will be constructed to properly adjust for confounders that may be unbalanced between the opioid and non–opioid users as well as to account for competing risk due to mortality. Reasons for the re-admissions will also be presented as part of the analyses. Covariates will include patient comorbidities, medication history, and healthcare system characteristics such as nurse-to-patient and attending physician-to-patient ratios. Results (interim): A total of 821 were included in the study; of these, 73% (n=597) were admitted for a cancer procedure. At postoperative discharge, 605 (74%) of patients had at least one opioid dispensation, of which the majority (67%) were oxycodone with hydromorphone being the second most prescribed (28%). Among those who filled a prescription, mean age was 66 (13.4), 68% had no previous history of opioid use, and 10% have had 3 or more dispensing pharmacies in the year prior to admission, compared to less than 1% for the non–opioid users. Overall, 343 people refilled their opioid prescription at least once and 128 at least twice during the 1-year postoperative period. Among cancer patients who were opioid users, 214 ED visits occurred in the 1 year after surgery compared to only 40 for the non-cancer opioid users. Conclusion: This study will help to identify the risk profile of cancer patients who are most likely to continue using opioids for prolonged periods following surgical procedures as well as quantify the impact of opioid use and its associated burden on the healthcare system in order to identify areas for possible interventions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hua-Shui Hsu ◽  
Tai-Hsien Wu ◽  
Chin-Yu Lin ◽  
Ching-Chun Lin ◽  
Tsung-Po Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Dyspnea is a common trigger of emergency department visits among terminally ill and cancer patients. Frequent emergency department (ED) visits at the end of life are an indicator of poor-quality care. We examined emergency department visit rates due to dyspnea symptoms among palliative patients under enhanced home palliative care. Methods Our home palliative care team is responsible for patient management by palliative care specialists, residents, home care nurses, social workers, and chaplains. We enhanced home palliative care visits from 5 days a week to 7 days a week, corresponding to one to two extra visits per week based on patient needs, to develop team-based medical services and formulate standard operating procedures for dyspnea care. Results Our team cared for a total of 762 patients who exhibited 512 ED visits, 178 of which were due to dyspnea (mean ± SD age, 70.4 ± 13.0 years; 49.4% male). Dyspnea (27.8%) was the most common reason recorded for ED visits, followed by pain (19.0%), GI symptoms (15.7%), and fever (15.3%). The analysis of Group A versus Group B revealed that the proportion of nonfamily workers (42.9% vs. 19.4%) and family members (57.1% vs. 80.6%) acting as caregivers differed significantly (P < 0.05). Compared to the ED visits of the Group A, the risk was decreased by 30.7% in the Group B (P < 0.05). Conclusions This study proves that enhanced home palliative care with two additional days per week and formulated standard operating procedures for dyspnea could significantly reduce the rate of ED visits due to non-organic dyspnea during the last 6 months of life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Young Lee ◽  
Young Sun Ro ◽  
Sang Do Shin ◽  
Sungwoo Moon

AbstractIt is inevitable for cancer patients to visit the emergency department (ED) for symptoms of cancer itself and various treatment-related complications. As the prevalence of cancer increases along with cancer survival rates, the number of ED visits of cancer patients may increase. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiologic trends and characteristics of cancer-related ED visits. A cross-sectional study was conducted for all ED visits nationwide between 2015 and 2019. The characteristics of cancer- and non-cancer-related ED visits were compared, and the cancer type and primary reason for ED visits were investigated for cancer-related ED visits. The age- and sex-standardized incidence rate per 100,000 population was calculated. Among 44,983,523 ED visits for 5 years, 1,372,119 (3.1%) were cancer-related. Among cancer-related ED visits, 54.8% led to hospitalization including 5.1% in ICU, and 9.5% died in the hospital. The age- and sex-standardized incidence rates of cancer-related ED visits per 100,000 population increased from 521.8 in 2015 to 642.2 in 2019 (p-for-trends, < 0.01), and rates of cancer-related hospital admission via ED were 309.0 in 2015 and 336.6 in 2019 (p-for-trends, 0.75). The most common cancer types were lung cancer (14.7%), liver cancer (13.1%), and colorectal cancer (11.5%). The most common primary reasons of cancer-related ED visits were pneumonia (3.6%), gastroenteritis (2.7%), fever (2.6%), abdominal pain (2.4%), and ileus (2.1%). Cancer-related ED visits accounted for 3.1% of all ED visits, with 1.37 million cases over five years. The incidence rate of cancer-related ED visits has increased year by year, with high hospitalization and mortality rates, and the burden of cancer-related ED visits will continue to increase as the prevalence increases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e18150-e18150
Author(s):  
Christopher John Coyne ◽  
Rebecca Arielle Shatsky ◽  
Jesse Brennan ◽  
Elena Martinez

e18150 Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with cancer utilize the emergency department (ED) more frequently than the general population. Additionally, cancer patients are more likely to require a repeat ED visit within 7 days of a preceding ED discharge (bounce back). This may be a marker of inadequate care or missed diagnosis. We designed this study to evaluate whether there are differences in bounce-back rates among cancer patients of different races/ethnicities. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study to compare all cancer-related ED visits in California based on race/ethnicity using the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) database. We queried all cancer-related ED visits in 2016 among patients ≥18 years and recorded general demographics. Our outcome measures were bounce-back rate and admission rate on the second ED visit. All data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive statistics are reported. Results: In 2016, there were 73,465 patients with 103,523 cancer-related ED discharges that met study inclusion criteria. 18% (18,491 visits) of these visits resulted in a bounce-back (versus 13.3% in the general ED population). African American patients had the highest bounce-back rate at 19.5%, followed by Hispanics (18.9%), Non-Hispanic Whites (17.3%) and Asians (17%). We observed an inverse trend in admission rates on the bounce-back visit, with Asian patients having the highest admission rate (40.5%), followed by Non-Hispanic Whites (37.7%), Hispanics (35.1%), and African Americans (32.5%). This is in the context of an overall admission rate of 36.7%, and a high mortality rate on the bounce-back visit of 8.4%. All groups were similar with respect to age, gender, and disease burden. Conclusions: Overall, we observed that African Americans and Hispanics returned to the ED at rates above average, which may be a marker of inadequate care or misdiagnosis. Furthermore, these groups were discharged at a higher frequency on the second visit, despite the high mortality associated with a bounce-back visit. Further investigation is needed to identify actionable targets to improve the emergency cancer care of all races/ethnicities.


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