Characteristics of non-urgent patients - Cross-sectional study of emergency department and primary care patients

Objective. To describe characteristics of patients seeking medical attention for non-urgent conditions at an emergency department (ED) and patients who use non-scheduled services in primary healthcare. Design. Descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting. Primary healthcare centres and an ED with the same catchment area in Stockholm, Sweden. Patients. Non-scheduled primary care patients and non- referred non- urgent ED patients within a defined catchment area investigated by structured face-to-face interviews in office hours during a nine-week period. Main outcome measures. Sociodemographic characteristics, chief complaints, previous healthcare use, perception of symptoms, and duration of symptoms before seeking care. Results. Of 924 eligible patients, 736 (80%) agreed to participate, 194 at the ED and 542 at nine corresponding primary care centres. The two groups shared demographic characteristics except gender. A majority (47%) of the patients at the primary care centres had respiratory symptoms, whereas most ED patients (52%) had digestive, musculoskeletal, or traumatic symptoms. Compared with primary care patients, a higher proportion (35%) of the ED patients had been hospitalized previously. ED patients were also more anxious about and disturbed by their symptoms and had had a shorter duration of symptoms. Both groups had previously used healthcare frequently. Conclusions. Symptoms, previous hospitalization and current perception of symptoms seemed to be the main factors discriminating between patients studied at the different sites. There were no substantial sociodemographic differences between the primary care centre patients and the ED patients.