Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Up to 20% of patients seen in public emergency departments (EDs) have already been seen for the same complaint at another ED, but little is known about the origin or impact of these duplicate ED visits. The goals of this investigation were to explore 1) whether patients making a repeat ED visit are self-referred or indirectly referred from the other ED and 2) gather the perspective of affected patients on the health, social, and financial consequences of these duplicate ED visits. ⋯ The majority of patients presenting to a public hospital ED after treatment for the same complaint in another local ED were indirectly referred to the public ED without transferring paperwork or records, incurring duplicate testing and patient anxiety.