Frequent Emergency Department Users: Focusing Solely On Medical Utilization Misses The Whole Person.

Frequent emergency department (ED) users often have complex behavioral health and social needs. However, policy makers often focus on this population's medical system use without examining its use of behavioral health and social services systems. To illuminate the wide-ranging needs of frequent ED users, we compared medical, mental health, substance use, and social services use among nonelderly nonfrequent, frequent, and superfrequent ED users in San Francisco County, California.

Does Shared Decision Making Actually Occur in the Emergency Department? Looking at It from the Patients' Perspective.

Objective: We sought to assess the frequency, content, and quality of shared decision making (SDM) in the emergency department (ED), from patients' perspectives.

Methods: Utilizing a cross-sectional, multisite approach, we administered an instrument, consisting of two validated SDM assessment tools-the CollaboRATE and the SDM-Q-9-and one newly developed tool to a sample of ED patients. Our primary outcome was the occurrence of SDM in the clinical encounter, as defined by participants giving "top-box" scores on the CollaboRATE measure, and the ability of patients to identify the topic of their SDM conversation.

Collecting Unused Medical Supplies in Emergency Departments for Responsible Redistribution.

Background: Medical supplies and equipment are unevenly distributed throughout the world.

Objective: Our aim was to describe, quantify, and monetize unused supplies suitable for recovery produced from two urban emergency departments (EDs).

Methods: We trained ED staff to place opened, unused, uncontaminated medical supplies in strategically located bins located in two urban EDs for 30 days.

Trends in the utilisation of emergency departments in California, 2005-2015: a retrospective analysis.

Objective: To examine current trends in the characteristics of patients visiting California emergency departments (EDs) in order to better direct the allocation of acute care resources.

Design: A retrospective study.

Setting: We analysed ED utilisation trends between 2005 and 2015 in California using non-public patient data from California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

Patient Preferences Regarding Shared Decision Making in the Emergency Department: Findings From a Multisite Survey.

Objectives: As shared decision making (SDM) has received increased attention as a method to improve the patient-centeredness of emergency department (ED) care, we sought to determine patients' desired level of involvement in medical decisions and their perceptions of potential barriers and facilitators to SDM in the ED.

Methods: We surveyed a cross-sectional sample of adult ED patients at three academic medical centers across the United States. The survey included 32 items regarding patient involvement in medical decisions including a modified Control Preference Scale and questions about barriers and facilitators to SDM in the ED.

Frequent Emergency Department Users: A Statewide Comparison Before And After Affordable Care Act Implementation.

Frequent emergency department (ED) use often serves as a marker for poor access to non-ED ambulatory care. Policy makers and providers hoped that by expanding coverage, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would curtail frequent ED use. We used data from California's Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to compare the characteristics of frequent ED users among nonelderly adults in California before and after implementation of several major coverage expansion provisions in the ACA.