Stereotype of frequent ER visitor untrue

NEW YORK, March 18 (UPI) -- The stereotype of the uninsured, ethnic minority inappropriately seeking basic primary care at U.S. hospitals pervades, but it is inaccurate, doctors say.

A review of two dozen studies, published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, found frequent users of hospital emergency departments are predominantly white, insured and at greater risk for hospitalization due to serious illness, despite public perceptions of them as abusers of the healthcare system with minor complaints and no health insurance.

Dr. Eduardo LaCalle of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York says frequent emergency department users -- visiting the emergency department four or more times per year -- are insured by Medicare or Medicaid. Frequent emergency department users, "who represent 4.5 percent to 8 percent of all emergency patients, but 21 percent to 28 percent of all visits, defy popular assumptions," LaCalle says.

"One example: The uninsured represent only 15 percent of frequent users," LaCalle says.

Study co-author Dr. Elaine Rabin also of Mt. Sinai says some frequent users visit the same emergency department all the time; others visit different ERs, depending on their complaint.

"An elderly cancer patient with many visits is very different from a young, poorly controlled asthmatic, yet both may be frequent visitors to the ER," Rabin says.