Factors Associated with the Likelihood of Hospitalization Following Emergency Department Visits for Behavioral Health Conditions

Abstract

Study Objectives

Behavioral health-related emergency department (ED) visits have been linked with ED overcrowding, an increased demand on limited resources and a longer length of stay due in part to patients being admitted to the hospital but waiting for an inpatient bed. The present study examines factors associated with the likelihood of hospital admission for ED patients with behavioral health conditions at 16 hospital-based EDs in a large urban area in the southern United States.

Methods

Using Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Service Use for guidance, the study examined the relationship between predisposing (characteristics of the individual, i.e., age, gender, race/ethnicity), enabling (system or structural factors affecting health care access) and need (clinical) factors and the likelihood of hospitalization following ED visits for behavioral health conditions (n = 28,716 ED visits). In the adjusted analysis, a logistic fixed effects model with block-wise entry was used to estimate the relative importance of predisposing, enabling and need variables added separately as blocks while controlling for variation in unobserved hospital-specific practices across hospitals and time in years.

Results

Significant predisposing factors associated with an increased likelihood of hospitalization following an ED visit included increasing age, while African American race was associated with a lower likelihood of hospitalization. Among enabling factors, arrival by emergency transport and a longer ED length of stay were associated with a greater likelihood of hospitalization while being uninsured and the availability of community-based behavioral health services within 5 miles of the ED were associated with lower odds. Among need factors, having a discharge diagnosis of schizophrenia/psychotic spectrum disorder, an affective disorder, a personality disorder, dementia or an impulse control disorder as well as secondary diagnoses of suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behavior increased the likelihood of hospitalization following an ED visit.

Conclusion

The block of enabling factors was the strongest predictor of hospitalization following an ED visit compared to predisposing and need factors. Our findings also provide evidence of disparities in hospitalization of the uninsured and racial and ethnic minority patients with ED visits for behavioral health conditions. Thus, improved access to community-based mental health services and an increased capacity for inpatient psychiatric hospitals for treating indigent patients may be needed to improve the efficiency of ED services in our region for patients with behavioral health conditions. Among need factors, a discharge diagnosis of schizophrenia/psychotic spectrum disorder, an affective disorder, a personality disorder, an impulse control disorder or dementia as well as secondary diagnoses of suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behavior increased the likelihood of hospitalization following an ED visit, also suggesting an opportunity for improving the efficiency of ED care through the provision of psychiatric services to stabilize and treat patients with serious mental illness.

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