Study: Urgent care center accessibility lowers some ED visits

Increased access to urgent care centers (UCC) may decrease the number of patients who seek treatment for low-acuity conditions in hospital emergency departments (ED), according to findings from a retrospective study recently published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

The creation of UCCs is a trend that is spreading rapidly across the U.S., according to the Urgent Care Association of America. Because UCCs generally provide more cost-effective treatment for non-severe conditions, physician researchers at Northwell North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, hypothesized that low-acuity medical problems frequently seen in UCCs would decrease in the ED population following the introduction of four new UCCs within 5 miles of the university hospital.

To test this hypothesis, they reviewed billing data for all patients seen in their ED between January 2009 and December 2016. In 2009, there was only one UCC within a 5-mile radius of the hospital. In 2016, there were four UCCs within a 5-mile radius. 

Researchers identified claims with a principal diagnosis of pharyngitis or bronchitis, which are two of the most common low-acuity diagnoses seen in UCCs. Claims selected for review listed principal diagnoses from ICD-10-CM code categories:

• J02.-, acute pharyngitis
• J31.-, chronic rhinitis, nasopharyngitis and pharyngitis
• J40.-, bronchitis, not specified as acute or chronic
• J41.-, simple and mucopurulent chronic bronchitis
• J44.-, other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Over the course of the study period, the proportion of ED patients with a principal diagnosis of pharyngitis decreased significantly from 1% to 0.6%. In addition, the rate of bronchitis in the total ED population decreased significantly from 0.5% to 0.13%.