Preventable Emergency Department Utilization Among Patients With Foster Care History Compared to Patients Without Foster Care History

Emergency department (ED) utilization for preventable reasons by patients with foster care history is unexplored. Medical records of ED encounters from primary care patients were pulled from a southwestern children's hospital system. Necessity of ED encounter was categorized using the New York University- ED Algorithm into emergent, intermediate, or non-emergent. Associations were explored at the encounter- and patient-level. Partial proportional logistic models generated odds of preventable (i.e., intermediate or nonemergent) ED utilization among encounters, and Poisson models determined incidence of preventable ED use at the patient level. Findings suggested that when a patient with history in foster care used the ED, the odds that it was preventable were lower than if the child did not have such experience. Further, patients with foster care history were less likely to use the ED for concerns that did not need immediate attention but were more likely to use the ED for intermediate reasons.