Analisi socio-economica degli accessi ripetuti al pronto soccorso pediatrico: il caso dell’Istituto G. Gaslini di Genova

Journal title STUDI ECONOMICI
Author/s Enrico Di Bella, Lucia Fontana, Lucia Leporatti, Marcello Montefiori, Paolo Petralia
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2016/118-119-120 Language Italian
Pages 16 P. 312-327 File size 273 KB
DOI 10.3280/STE2016-118017
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The use of Emergency Departments (EDs) is continuously increasing and the challenge of guaranteeing an efficient and effective service is threatened by the phenomena of inappropriate and frequent use. Most of the literature on the topic focuses on adult population; in this study we analyse the issue of frequent use of ED among paediatric patients, with the aim of detecting the most significant socio-demographic and clinical predictors of frequent use of emergency services. Results, based on data collected from the ED of one of the most important paediatric Italian Hospital, show that children aged less than 12 months, foreign and chronic patients (particularly those suffering from mental illness, respiratory diseases and circulatory system problems) have a higher risk of becoming frequent and highly frequent ED users. It emerges that frequent users, although they only represent the 8% of total number of accesses, they account for 19% of total costs.

Keywords: Paediatric emergency department, Frequent user, Healthcare system sustainability, Inappropriate use, Risk factors, chronic conditions

Jel codes: H51; I11, I12, C50

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Enrico Di Bella, Lucia Fontana, Lucia Leporatti, Marcello Montefiori, Paolo Petralia, Analisi socio-economica degli accessi ripetuti al pronto soccorso pediatrico: il caso dell’Istituto G. Gaslini di Genova in "STUDI ECONOMICI " 118-119-120/2016, pp 312-327, DOI: 10.3280/STE2016-118017