INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- An Indiana study challenges conventional wisdom that patients are tightly bound to healthcare systems and tend to repeatedly visit the same hospital.
Dr. Shaun Grannis and Dr. John T. Finnell, both of Indiana University School of Medicine and who also are investigators at the Regenstrief Institute, found nearly all emergency departments in Indiana shared patients with nearly every other emergency department.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the American Medical Informatics Association 2011 Annual Symposium, found about 2.8 million patients in Indiana generated 7.4 million visits over three years. The number of visits per patient ranged from one to 385.
"Our findings provide critical, previously unrealized information to policy makers as well as those, like ourselves, who are designing strategies and technology to link medical information electronically," Grannis, the senior author, said in a statement. "These numbers challenge premises upon which health information exchange policy and technology have been based."
Knowing where and when a patient has been treated and what tests they have take makes a difference in treatment, Finnell said.
"What may appear to be a simple problem is no longer simple when someone comes in for a second or third emergency department visit for the same issue. You are no longer thinking earache, you are thinking possible bone infection," Finnell said. "Knowing that a patient who comes to the emergency department with chest pain had a recent clear cardiac scan will make a difference in treatment."
