Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To explore whether patients in a public ED had poorer health than patients in a private ED, the authors compared the physical and mental health statuses of patients seeking emergency care. ⋯ Patients seeking care in the public ED had lower adjusted physical health status scores than comparable patients obtaining care in a private ED. The SF-12 is sufficiently responsive to detect hypothesized differences between ED populations, and correlates well with admission decisions.
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To compare the effects of HMOs with the effects of other types of private health insurance on nonurgent ED visits in the pediatric population. ⋯ Pediatric patients with private insurance were more likely to present for emergency care for nonurgent reasons when compared with HMO patients after adjusting for the above listed variables. The reasons for this disparity should be further explored.