Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
Volume 21, Issue 4, 2019, Pages 793-800

Emergency Department and Primary Care Use by Refugees Compared to Non-refugee Controls (Article)

Guess M.A. , Tanabe K.O. , Nelson A.E. , Nguyen S. , Hauck F.R. , Scharf R.J.*
  • a Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
  • b Department of Family Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
  • c Department of Pediatrics, Penn State University, Hershey, PA, United States
  • d Department of Family Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
  • e Department of Family Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
  • f Developmental Pediatrics, University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, Charlottesville, VA, United States

Abstract

The U.S. grants asylum to 60,000–70,000 refugees yearly. However, little is known about their healthcare utilization practices. We examined data from emergency department (ED) and primary care (PC) visits of 694 refugees and 738 non-refugee controls over a 3 years period at a large academic medical center, comparing visit frequencies, Emergency Severity Index (ESI) scores, diagnoses, and dispositions. Refugees used emergency care services less frequently than the non-refugee controls (1.19 vs. 2.31, p < 0.0001) while there was no difference in their use of primary care services (8.45 vs. 9.07, p = 0.18). Non-English-speaking refugees were more likely to use the ED than English-speaking refugees (mean ED use in study period 1.50 visits vs. 0.73, p < 0.0001). Refugee patients utilized emergency services less often compared to controls. These results differ from previously studied refugee populations. Refugee-specific primary care services in this study population may reduce unnecessary ED use. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Author Keywords

Primary care emergency department Refugee Healthcare utilization

Index Keywords

controlled study emergency care primary medical care refugee emergency ward Article speech diagnosis health care utilization university hospital human adult emergency health service
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85050980849&doi=10.1007%2fs10903-018-0795-5&partnerID=40&md5=1081896d027f23c8df838b448ad44cf7
DOI: 10.1007/s10903-018-0795-5
ISSN: 15571912
Original Language: English