North Carolina medical journal
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To describe the primary reason for visits to hospital emergency departments (EDs) by patients whose expected source of payment was Medicaid/State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The primary reason for an ED visit is particularly important because it reflects the patients' perspective of the problem that necessitated a visit to the ED. ⋯ Although Medicaid/SCHIP enrollees shared the same leading reasons with the general population in their visits to EDs, they had higher rates of visits for these reasons. It is possible that the general population is making a higher proportion of visits for the same reasons to settings other than EDs, relative to the Medicaid population. Differences in the age distribution of these populations could also be a factor in the observed visit rates.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe patient characteristics and clinical conditions seen in North Carolina emergency departments (EDs) in 2007. ⋯ Emergency department data can provide valuable information on the proportions and rates of ED visits for illness and injury statewide and can help identify vulnerable populations in the state.