학술논문
Cancer patients as frequent attenders in emergency departments: A national cohort study
Document Type
article
Author
Source
Cancer Medicine, Vol 7, Iss 9, Pp 4434-4446 (2018)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
2045-7634
Abstract
Abstract Background Cancer patients contribute significantly to emergency department (ED) utilization. The objective of this study was to identify factors associated with patients becoming ED frequent attenders (FA) after a cancer‐related hospitalization. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted using national administrative, billing, and death records of Singapore residents discharged alive from Singapore public hospitals from January 2012 to December 2015, with a primary discharge diagnosis of cancer. Patients with four or more ED visits within any 12‐month period after discharge from their index hospitalization were classified as FA. Time to FA distribution was estimated using the Kaplan‐Meier method, and factors associated with risk of FA were identified using multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results Records for 47 235 patients were analyzed, of whom 2980 patients were FA within the study period. Age (