TY - JOUR PY - 2011 SN - 1972-4918 T1 - The Effects of Inappropriate Emercency Department Use JO - STUDI ECONOMICI DA - 5/15/2012 12:00:00 AM DO - 10.3280/STE2011-105002 UR - http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/Scheda_rivista.aspx?idArticolo=45403 AU - Ameri, Marta AU - Cremonesi, Paolo AU - Montefiori, Marcello SP - 123 EP - 136 IS - 105 VL - LXVI LA - EN AB - Emergency Departments (EDs) are supposed to provide healthcare to patients with acute clinical conditions. Nevertheless almost 80% of total access to EDs is represented by white and green code patients. Looking at triage code classification as a proxy of patients’ severity, it clearly emerges that many accesses to EDs are inappropriate because of the absence of urgency. This paper is intended to investigate this phenomenon, defining an objective criterion of inappropriateness and estimating the impact it has on ED hospitals in terms of quality and cost. For this purpose a descriptive statistical and econometric analysis is implemented. We also focus our attention on the role played by non-EU patients without residence permits who are unable to get healthcare from general practitioners or other local care facilities. PB - FrancoAngeli ER -