Patient and health care utilization characteristics of people who make frequent emergency department visits and controls (Apr. 1, 2015, to Mar. 31, 2016), by province
| Characteristic | Ontario | Alberta | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent emergency department visits | Controls | Frequent emergency department visits | Controls | |
| Patient characteristics (NACRS metadata) | ||||
| No. of patients | 477647 | 1711848 | 102027 | 404111 |
| Gender, n (%) | ||||
| Female | 264731 (55.4) | 896281 (52.4) | 56417 (55.3) | 204986 (50.7) |
| Male | 212908 (44.6) | 815550 (47.6) | 45610 (44.7) | 199125 (49.3) |
| Other | 6 (0.0) | 9 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Undifferentiated | 2 (0.0) | 8 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Age, yr, median (IQR) | 52 (33–70) | 49 (33–64) | 46 (30–64) | 43 (30–59) |
| Rural or urban, n (%) | ||||
| Rural | 98098 (20.5) | 273212 (16.0) | 35178 (34.5) | 71432 (17.7) |
| Urban | 377318 (79.0) | 1435081 (83.8) | 65429 (64.1) | 330834 (81.9) |
| Not available | 2231 (0.5) | 3555 (0.2) | 1420 (1.4) | 1845 (0.4) |
| No. of visits per patient, median (IQR) | 4 (3–5) | 1 (1–1) | 5 (4–7) | 1 (1–2) |
| Emergency department visit characteristics (NACRS metadata) | ||||
| Total number of emergency department visits | 2213161 | 2106899 | 690330 | 562922 |
| Arrival by ambulance, n (%) | ||||
| Air ambulance | 411 (0.0) | 236 (0.0) | 443 (0.1) | 349 (0.1) |
| Air and ground ambulance | 1315 (0.1) | 591 (0.0) | 470 (0.1) | 165 (0.0) |
| Ground ambulance | 446762 (20.2) | 310071 (14.7) | 97925 (14.2) | 66255 (11.8) |
| No ambulance | 1764673 (79.7) | 1796001 (85.2) | 591492 (85.7) | 496153 (88.1) |
| Triage level (CTAS), n (%) | ||||
| 1 (resuscitation) | 20796 (0.9) | 19316 (0.9) | 3109 (0.5) | 3192 (0.6) |
| 2 (emergent) | 458014 (20.7) | 418003 (19.8) | 77985 (11.3) | 81244 (14.4) |
| 3 (urgent) | 1012638 (45.8) | 967356 (45.9) | 221905 (32.1) | 215251 (38.2) |
| 4 (less urgent) | 593436 (26.8) | 638023 (30.3) | 239741 (34.7) | 206498 (36.7) |
| 5 (nonurgent) | 113565 (5.1) | 60197 (2.9) | 116670 (16.9) | 46307 (8.2) |
| Unknown | 12344 (0.6) | 2695 (0.1) | 29364 (4.3) | 9957 (1.8) |
| Not available | 2368 (0.1) | 1309 (0.1) | 1556 (0.2) | 473 (0.1) |
| Visit disposition, n (%) | ||||
| Discharged | 1778194 (80.3) | 1818664 (86.3) | 577751 (83.7) | 479990 (85.3) |
| Transferred or admitted | 337594 (15.3) | 221797 (10.5) | 82193 (11.9) | 61864 (11.0) |
| Left against medical advice | 96255 (4.3) | 63833 (3.0) | 30174 (4.4) | 20513 (3.6) |
| Died | 1118 (0.1) | 2605 (0.1) | 212 (0.0) | 555 (0.1) |
| Hospitalization characteristics (DAD metadata) | ||||
| No. of patients with at least 1 admission, (%) | 157965 (33.1) | 186498 (10.9) | 38464 (37.7) | 50348 (12.5) |
| No. of admissions | 292411 | 211916 | 75014 | 59728 |
| ICD-10 primary problem chapter among admissions, n (%) | ||||
| Infectious diseases (I) | 13966 (4.8) | 8194 (3.9) | 2624 (3.5) | 1738 (2.9) |
| Neoplasms (II and III) | 18315 (6.3) | 11092 (5.2) | 3439 (4.6) | 2778 (4.7) |
| Endocrine (IV) | 12236 (4.2) | 5688 (2.7) | 3028 (4.0) | 1543 (2.6) |
| Mental and behavioural (V) | 10187 (3.5) | 4202 (2.0) | 8608 (11.5) | 4754 (8.0) |
| Neurologic (VI) | 6983 (2.4) | 4583 (2.2) | 1655 (2.2) | 1264 (2.1) |
| Eye and ear (VII and VIII) | 836 (0.3) | 1114 (0.5) | 242 (0.3) | 385 (0.6) |
| Circulatory (IX) | 50029 (17.1) | 45727 (21.6) | 9415 (12.6) | 9660 (16.2) |
| Respiratory (X) | 35749 (12.2) | 20607 (9.7) | 8679 (11.6) | 5353 (9.0) |
| Digestive (XI) | 41150 (14.1) | 34488 (16.3) | 9910 (13.2) | 8722 (14.6) |
| Skin (XII) | 5120 (1.8) | 2015 (1.0) | 1653 (2.2) | 645 (1.1) |
| Musculoskeletal (XIII) | 8113 (2.8) | 4757 (2.2) | 1975 (2.6) | 1352 (2.3) |
| Genitourinary (XIV) | 19100 (6.5) | 10740 (5.1) | 4695 (6.3) | 3563 (6.0) |
| Pregnancy (XV) | 5417 (1.9) | 6688 (3.2) | 2848 (3.8) | 2853 (4.8) |
| Perinatal (XVI) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.0) | 2 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
| Congenital (XVII) | 124 (0.0) | 110 (0.1) | 44 (0.1) | 47 (0.1) |
| Abnormal clinical findings (XVIII) | 27636 (9.5) | 15969 (7.5) | 5523 (7.4) | 3374 (5.6) |
| Injury and poisoning (XIX) | 27506 (9.4) | 27818 (13.1) | 7904 (10.5) | 9135 (15.3) |
| General health status (XXI) | 9944 (3.4) | 8122 (3.8) | 2770 (3.7) | 2560 (4.3) |
| Not available | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 2 (0.0) |
| Alcohol-related diagnoses among admissions, n (%) | ||||
| Yes | 4000 (1.4) | 1402 (0.7) | 2482 (3.3) | 771 (1.3) |
| No | 288411 (98.6) | 210514 (99.3) | 72532 (96.7) | 58957 (98.7) |
| Continuing care (CCRS metadata) | ||||
| Number of patients with continuing care use, n (%) | 19512 (4.1) | 20307 (1.2) | 1140 (1.1) | 1730 (0.4) |
| Home care (HCRS metadata) | ||||
| Number of patients with home care use, n (%) | 91582 (19.2) | 111368 (6.5) | 15901 (15.6) | 20439 (5.1) |
| Mental health hospitalization–related characteristics (HMHDB metadata) | ||||
| No. of patients with at least 1 mental health–related admission (%) | 25555 (5.4) | 16048 (0.9) | 5913 (5.8) | 4677 (1.2) |
| Homelessness status among patients with at least 1 mental health–related admission, n (%) | ||||
| Home | 1246 (4.9) | 247 (1.5) | 338 (5.7) | 80 (1.7) |
| No. of mental health–related admissions | 42708 | 18243 | 9798 | 5653 |
| Diagnosis category among mental health–related admissions n (%) | ||||
| Mood disorder | 12038 (28.2) | 5654 (31.0) | 1854 (18.9) | 1379 (24.4) |
| Substance-related disorder | 8758 (20.5) | 2600 (14.3) | 3570 (36.4) | 1086 (19.2) |
| Schizophrenic and psychotic disorder | 9192 (21.5) | 3973 (21.8) | 1297 (13.2) | 1118 (19.8) |
| Organic disorder | 5721 (13.4) | 3518 (19.3) | 986 (10.1) | 1063 (18.8) |
| Other mental health disorder | 3187 (7.5) | 1533 (8.4) | 1142 (11.7) | 658 (11.6) |
| Anxiety disorder | 1661 (3.9) | 618 (3.4) | 459 (4.7) | 217 (3.8) |
| Personality disorder | 1918 (4.5) | 234 (1.3) | 446 (4.6) | 88 (1.6) |
| Non–mental health disorder | 183 (0.4) | 86 (0.5) | 44 (0.4) | 44 (0.8) |
| Unknown disorder or not available | 50 (0.1) | 27 (0.1) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) |
Note: CCRS = Continuing Care Reporting System, CTAS = Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, DAD = Discharge Abstract Database, HCRS = Home Care Reporting System, HMHDB = Hospital Mental Health Database, IQR = interquartile range, ICD-10-CA = International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision, Canadian version, NACRS = National Ambulatory Care Reporting System.