Faculty Collaboration Database

Primary care quality and subsequent emergency department utilization for children in Wisconsin Medicaid. Acad Pediatr 2009;9(1):33-9

Date

03/31/2009

Pubmed ID

19329089

DOI

10.1016/j.acap.2008.11.004

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-63449115849 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   50 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Children enrolled in Medicaid have disproportionately high emergency department (ED) visit rates. Despite the growing importance of patient reported quality-of-care assessments, little is known about the association between parent-reported quality of primary care and ED utilization for these high-risk children. Our goal was to determine the association between parent-reported primary care quality and subsequent ED utilization for children in Medicaid.

METHODS: We studied a retrospective cohort of children enrolled in Wisconsin Medicaid. Parents of children sampled during fall 2002 and fall 2004 completed Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys assessing their child's primary care quality in 3 domains: family centeredness, timeliness, and realized access. Primary outcomes were the rates of subsequent nonurgent and urgent ED visits, extracted from claims data for the year after survey completion. Negative binomial regression was used to determine the association between the domains of care and ED utilization.

RESULTS: A total of 5468 children were included. High-quality family centeredness was associated with a 27% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 11%-40%) lower nonurgent ED visit rate, but no lowering of the urgent visit rate. High-quality timeliness was associated with 18% (95% CI, 3%-31%) lower nonurgent and 18% (95% CI, 1%-33%) lower urgent visit rates. High-quality realized access was associated with a 27% (95% CI, 8%-43%) lower nonurgent visit rate and a 33% (95% CI, 14%-48%) lower urgent visit rate.

CONCLUSIONS: Parent-reported high-quality timeliness, family centeredness, and realized access for a publicly insured child are associated with lower nonurgent ED, with high-quality timeliness and realized access associated with lower urgent ED utilization.

Author List

Brousseau DC, Gorelick MH, Hoffmann RG, Flores G, Nattinger AB

Author

Ann B. Nattinger MD, MPH Associate Provost, Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Child
Child, Preschool
Cross-Sectional Studies
Emergency Medical Services
Emergency Service, Hospital
Female
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
Infant
Male
Medicaid
Multivariate Analysis
Primary Health Care
Quality of Health Care
Retrospective Studies
United States
Wisconsin