Essential Question
Why do people utilize the emergency room for non emergent reasons?
Why do people utilize the emergency room for non emergent reasons?
What I Needed to Know (Part One):
Growing up, I constantly heard a variety of work stories from my parents. My mom being an OBGYN and taking emergency calls, and my dad being a firefighter, their stories usually dealt with emergencies, which led to my interest in emergency medicine. As I have already explored the topic of emergency medicine in previous years, I needed to take a new perspective on the field. This year I wanted to look at the demographics of the ER in Gainesville, Ga. Information such as age, race, languages that are seen in our emergency room. This data could be compared to the data in other emergency rooms across the United States.
Growing up, I constantly heard a variety of work stories from my parents. My mom being an OBGYN and taking emergency calls, and my dad being a firefighter, their stories usually dealt with emergencies, which led to my interest in emergency medicine. As I have already explored the topic of emergency medicine in previous years, I needed to take a new perspective on the field. This year I wanted to look at the demographics of the ER in Gainesville, Ga. Information such as age, race, languages that are seen in our emergency room. This data could be compared to the data in other emergency rooms across the United States.
What I Already Knew (Part Two):
I have preexisting knowledge on the emergency room due to my research last year and that I have mentored in the ER for two years now. Information I know: the ER is misused and the demographics I have observed our varied.
I have preexisting knowledge on the emergency room due to my research last year and that I have mentored in the ER for two years now. Information I know: the ER is misused and the demographics I have observed our varied.
Research (Part Three)
I began my hunt for research on a broad scale, using key words such as "emergency room", "misuse of ER", and "emergency room statistics" to search through the scholarly search engine, Galileo. These search results helped me to build a more well rounded understanding of my topic and gave me a starting point to delve deeper into specific topics. I found sources that provided research on emergency room visits and statistics regarding the urgency of patients visit. These sources led me to the conclusion that patients often visit the emergency room for non urgent issues because they have a lower standard when classifying emergencies, as opposed to what the physicians see as an emergent issue. Furthermore, I consulted an article from the Harvard Health Letter that outlined when people should go to the emergency room based on the symptoms they were experiencing. The source informs the public that symptoms such as headache, small cuts, fainting, etc. do not warrant emergency room visits, however, this often depends on the age of the patient. This source led me to the reasoning that elderly patients frequent the emergency room for an array of symptoms, some of them non emergent, because geriatric patients are advised to get a consult for even small symptoms to be safe. Through exploration of this article, I also drew the conclusion that individuals who constantly misuse emergency resources may be doing so because of their lack of medical knowledge, which leads them to think that minor symptoms need to be treated be a medical professional.
Once I completed my preliminary research, I started to draw from personal experience to answer my essential question. I find that each time I go to my mentor ship, I have an encounter with drug seeking patients. These patients are identifiable because they generally have an extended knowledge of pain medications or at least the exact type they believe they need, along with the fact that their prescription history reveals frequent prescriptions for pain medications from various doctors and they report vague symptoms. These experiences showed me that emergency room resources are constantly taken for granted by the same patients in order to gain drugs, which aids in answering my initial question. However, I could not conduct further research into this observation because there is no way to definitely prove that an individual is a drug seeking patient.
I began my hunt for research on a broad scale, using key words such as "emergency room", "misuse of ER", and "emergency room statistics" to search through the scholarly search engine, Galileo. These search results helped me to build a more well rounded understanding of my topic and gave me a starting point to delve deeper into specific topics. I found sources that provided research on emergency room visits and statistics regarding the urgency of patients visit. These sources led me to the conclusion that patients often visit the emergency room for non urgent issues because they have a lower standard when classifying emergencies, as opposed to what the physicians see as an emergent issue. Furthermore, I consulted an article from the Harvard Health Letter that outlined when people should go to the emergency room based on the symptoms they were experiencing. The source informs the public that symptoms such as headache, small cuts, fainting, etc. do not warrant emergency room visits, however, this often depends on the age of the patient. This source led me to the reasoning that elderly patients frequent the emergency room for an array of symptoms, some of them non emergent, because geriatric patients are advised to get a consult for even small symptoms to be safe. Through exploration of this article, I also drew the conclusion that individuals who constantly misuse emergency resources may be doing so because of their lack of medical knowledge, which leads them to think that minor symptoms need to be treated be a medical professional.
Once I completed my preliminary research, I started to draw from personal experience to answer my essential question. I find that each time I go to my mentor ship, I have an encounter with drug seeking patients. These patients are identifiable because they generally have an extended knowledge of pain medications or at least the exact type they believe they need, along with the fact that their prescription history reveals frequent prescriptions for pain medications from various doctors and they report vague symptoms. These experiences showed me that emergency room resources are constantly taken for granted by the same patients in order to gain drugs, which aids in answering my initial question. However, I could not conduct further research into this observation because there is no way to definitely prove that an individual is a drug seeking patient.
Discovery (Part Four)
My initial assumptions and findings were quite similar. I assumed that substance abuse and lack of education, for example, would be part of the reasoning people overused the emergency room, and my sources backed these ideas. After doing this research and getting answers, the data can potentially apply on to a larger scale and better the emergency room over the course of time. Two of my sources would be useful in creating an informational website for individuals who are deciding whether or not to go into the emergency room. This site would be an educational tool for the public in order to reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency room, which would help emergency room staff and increase the efficiency of the emergency room flow. The website would contain an array of symptoms with the different health concerns that go with these symptoms and whether or not to go into the emergency room.
For a sample version of this type of website, visit my "product" page.
My initial assumptions and findings were quite similar. I assumed that substance abuse and lack of education, for example, would be part of the reasoning people overused the emergency room, and my sources backed these ideas. After doing this research and getting answers, the data can potentially apply on to a larger scale and better the emergency room over the course of time. Two of my sources would be useful in creating an informational website for individuals who are deciding whether or not to go into the emergency room. This site would be an educational tool for the public in order to reduce unnecessary visits to the emergency room, which would help emergency room staff and increase the efficiency of the emergency room flow. The website would contain an array of symptoms with the different health concerns that go with these symptoms and whether or not to go into the emergency room.
For a sample version of this type of website, visit my "product" page.