Observational studyClinical medicine (London, England)2016
Designing services for frequent attenders to the emergency department: a characterisation of this population to inform service design.
Observational study in Clinical medicine (London, England), 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- What is the prevalence of frequent attendance to emergency departments and what is the impact on emergency department utilisation? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Internal and emergency medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Factors associated with persistent high use of emergency departments: a nationwide retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- High Utilisation Behaviour in Emergency Departments: Predictors in Baixo Alentejo Region.Portuguese journal of public health · 2026Article
- Overview of somatization through three historical lenses and future directions.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- Review
- How predictive of future healthcare utilisation and mortality is data-driven population segmentation based on healthcare utilisation and chronic condition comorbidity?BMC public health · 2024Article
- Diagnosing an overcrowded emergency department from its Electronic Health Records.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The Development of a Multi-Modal Cancer Rehabilitation (Including Prehabilitation) Service in Sheffield, UK: Designing the Active Together Service.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Supporting High-impAct useRs in Emergency Departments (SHarED) quality improvement: a mixed-method evaluation.BMJ open quality · 2023Article
- Why Are Some Male Alcohol Misuse Disorder Patients High Utilisers of Emergency Health Services? An Asian Qualitative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Effectiveness of a targeted telephone-based case management service on activity in an Emergency Department in the UK: a pragmatic difference-in-differences evaluation.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Identifying solutions to meet unmet needs of family caregivers using human-centered design.BMC geriatrics · 2022Observational
- Frequent users of emergency departments and patient flow in Alberta and Ontario, Canada: an administrative data study.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Article
- Using Human-Centered Design to Build a Digital Health Advisor for Patients With Complex Needs: Persona and Prototype Development.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- Observational
- [We can call hiper frequent users to the patients with the highest number of attention in emergencies and primary care].Atencion primaria · 2019Article
- Frequent attenders at primary care out-of-hours services: a registry-based observational study in Norway.BMC health services research · 2018Observational
- Patients with somatoform disorders: More frequent attendance and higher utilization in primary Out-of-Hours care?PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Frequent attendance to the emergency department (ED) is a growing public health concern. Designing services for frequent attenders poses challenges, given the heterogeneous nature of this group. This was a two-part observational study identifying frequent attenders from ED records. The first stage studied trends and developed personas with emphasis on differentiating moderate frequent attenders (attending between 5 and 20 times per year) and extreme frequent attenders (attending more than 20 times). Stage 2 included a case note review of 100 consecutive frequent attenders. Results showed an increase in frequent attendance from 2.59% to 4.12% over 8 years. Moderate frequent attenders accounted for 97%. Of the 100 frequent attenders studied, 45% had medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), associated with younger age (p<0.001) but not with gender (p>0.05). In conclusion, the ED is a useful hub for identifying frequent attenders with MUS, particularly among moderate frequent attenders; service design for this group should consider a 'whole-systems approach' with integration between primary and secondary care, including specialist liaison psychiatry services where appropriate.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.