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© 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Objective

People with cancer are increasingly more likely to visit an emergency department for acute care than the general population. They often have long wait times and more exposure to infection and receive treatment from staff less experienced with cancer‐related problems. Our objective was to examine emergency department (ED) visits among people with cancer to understand how often and why they seek care.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective study of ED visits using the National Syndromic Surveillance Program BioSense Platform. Cancer reported during an ED visit was identified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes for any cancer type, including bladder, breast, cervical, colorectal, kidney, liver, lung, ovary, pancreas, prostate, or uterine cancers. Symptoms prompting the visit were identified for people with cancer who visited EDs in the United States from June 2017 to May 2018 in ≈4500 facilities, including 3000 EDs in 46 states and the District of Columbia (66% of all ED visits during a 1‐year period).

Results

Of 97 million ED visits examined, 710,297 (0.8%) were among people with cancer. Percentages were higher among women (50.1%) than men (49.5%) and among adults aged ≥65 years (53.6%) than among those ≤64 years (45.7%). The most common presenting symptoms were pain (19.1%); gastrointestinal (13.8%), respiratory (11.5%), and neurologic (5.3%) complaints; fever (4.9%); injury (4.1%); and bleeding (2.4%). Symptom prevalence differed significantly by cancer type.

Conclusions

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services encourages efforts to reduce acute care visits among people with cancer. We characterized almost 70% of ED visits among this population.

Details

Title
Emergency department visits among people with cancer: Frequency, symptoms, and characteristics
Author
Michael Shayne Gallaway 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Idaikkadar, Nimi 2 ; Tai, Eric 1 ; Momin, Behnoosh 1 ; Rohan, Elizabeth A 1 ; Townsend, Julie 1 ; Puckett, Mary 1 ; Stewart, Sherri L 1 

 Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA 
 Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance, Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA 
Section
General Medicine
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Jun 2021
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
e-ISSN
26881152
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2546000187
Copyright
© 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.