Emergency Department Use Among Assisted Living Residents After Hurricane Irma.
Cassandra L Hua, Kali S Thomas, Lindsay J Peterson and 2 others
PMID 33234448WHAT IT FOUND
Injury-related emergency visits were 13% higher for 30 days after Hurricane Irma among Florida assisted living residents than the year before, and other medical visits remained 9% higher at 90 days.
Key findings
01Injury-related emergency department visits were 13% higher at 30 days after Hurricane Irma than in 2016, but did not differ significantly at 90 days.
02Other medical emergency department visits were 14% higher at 30 days and 9% higher at 90 days after the storm.
03In 2017, two of the top 10 primary emergency department diagnoses were related to heart failure, unlike 2016.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only Florida assisted living communities with 25 or more beds were studied, so results may not apply to smaller facilities or other states. Medicare Advantage beneficiaries were excluded, and they may differ from fee-for-service residents. The study compared only one control year, 2016, partly because diagnosis coding changed in 2015, so it cannot fully separate the storm from other year-to-year differences. The control year included smaller storms, so it may not be a clean baseline. Anxiety was not controlled for, even though it can affect emergency department use.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH and U.S. government sources.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the higher emergency visit rates as proof that assisted living care was worse after Irma. The study compared 2017 with 2016 in Florida facilities with 25 or more beds and excluded Medicare Advantage residents, so it cannot separate storm effects from other year-to-year differences.