Non-Urgent Visits to Emergency Department: Consequences and Solutions

Running head: HEALTH CARE
HEALTH CARE
Name of the University
Author Note

1HEALTH CARE

2HEALTH CARE
Why is the hospital emergency department sometimes used for non-urgent conditions? What
are the consequences?
The services that are meant for the non-urgent emergency care services can be referred to as a
visit to the hospital settings for any clinical condition, whose delay would not cause any
lethal outcome. As per several studies, 30 % of the emergency department visits has been
found due to the occurrence of any non-urgent clinical conditions. Bed blocking is a term that
is frequently used by the clinicians, which can be referred to as an important public health
problem (Alyasin & Douglas, 2014). Normally, the clients in a hospital setting should be
prioritised or categorised on the basis of their emergency needs. The urgent cases are
generally admitted in to the emergency department and the non-urgent cases are sent for
evaluation in the primary care centre or some of the fast track departments (Idil et al., 2018).
Schumacher et al., (2013) have reported several parameters that causes the patients to rush to
the emergency departments. Patients do not find hour friendly primary care services, whereas
in the emergency departments, the patients can even get care in the odd hours and even in the
weekends which might not be got in a primary care setting (Schumacher et al., 2013). The
emergency department is equipped all the medical devices which cannot be seen in primary
care centres, this immediate reassurances can be provided to the patient about the treatment.
Patients are also referred to the ED from the primary care facilities, if case the health of the
patient deteriorates. There are certain legal and ethical obligations while admitting a patient
to the ED. Crowding in the ED can be an important indicator of the faults in the primary care
system (Schumacher et al., 2013). The number of health care consumers are rising day by day
added on by the growing aged population. Furthermore the the supply and the funding of the
primary care centers are out spaced by the burden of the chronic disease conditions. The gaps
left by the primary care facilities is being filled up by the ED. According to Alyasin and