Completed Research Project
Frequent Attenders to Emergency Departments: the FATED study
Investigators: Jiwa M, Jelineck G, Gibson N.
Funding: Ada Bartholomew Medical Research Trust $30,000
Administering Institution: University of Western Australia
People who frequently attend hospital emergency departments (EDs) have been described as a vulnerable population with high rates of alcohol and drug use, psychiatric disorders and chronic medical conditions. This group of patients has however been difficult to characterise as different studies have used different definitions of what constitutes frequent attendance. One very large probabilistically linked statewide database in Utah defined repeat attenders as having two visits in three years and serial attenders four visits in a year. A smaller study from a single hospital in Sheffield UK compared the frequency distribution of attenders with a normal distribution and suggested that a frequent user be defined as someone who attends more than four times a year. This figure was also used in a large statewide linked data study in Massachusetts, USA. No studies have systematically examined the changing characteristics of patients as the number of ED visits increases, and little is known about people who attend extremely frequently. Our study examines how frequently patients attend EDs in Perth hospitals and the pattern of demographic characteristics and clinical conditions associated with increasing attendance.
