Observational studyDeutsches Arzteblatt international2017
Patients Attending Emergency Departments.
Observational study in Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
77 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- How do interventions in primary care or in emergency departments impact less urgent patients' emergency care utilization? A systematic review.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- [Structured triage in the emergency department via intelligent assistant service OPTINOFA : Results of a multicenter, cluster-randomized and controlled interventional study in Germany].Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin · 2025Trial
- Clinical Urgency of After-Hours Presentations of Dogs and Cats to a Private Small-Animal Practice in Germany: A Retrospective Study of 4579 Visits.Veterinary sciences · 2026Article
- Agreement and Classification Performance of a Mobile Self-Triage Application Based on the Manchester Triage System in Hemodynamically Stable Adult Walk-In Emergency Department Patients: A Prospective Observational Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Factors associated with avoidable non-urgent emergency department visits in South Tyrol (Italy): a multicentre cross-sectional study.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- [Artificial intelligence in fracture diagnostics : Potentials and challenges in the clinical practice].Unfallchirurgie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- General Practice-led urgent care practice vs. emergency room - satisfaction of ambulatory patients with low urgency medical problems.The European journal of general practice · 2025Observational
- Establishing and validating syndromic surveillance of gastrointestinal infections using routine emergency department data, Germany, 2019-2023.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Trends in nonurgent mental health presentations to emergency departments: insights from the first nationwide study in Germany.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Utilization of acute medical services in general practice: a retrospective routine data analysis.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Breaking the chains in plato's cave: acute care in general practice.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Association between patient characteristics and recommendations by medical on-call service 116117 in Germany: a cross sectional observational study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Observational
- Article
- Patient navigation in German emergency care (NODE). Study protocol of a multi-center mixed-methods trial.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- Unveiling Usage Patterns and Explaining Usage of Symptom Checker Apps: Explorative Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- [Emergency hand surgery in the course of time : Clinical and economic aspects of inpatient and outpatient cases at a university hospital in the last decade].Unfallchirurgie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Evaluating Ocular Healthcare Accessibility and the Severity of Emergencies during Times of Crisis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- [Motives of patients presenting independently at the emergency department-a prospective monocentric observational study].Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin · 2024Observational
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe number of patients in emergency departments has risen steadily in recent years, with a particular increase in patients not requiring urgent treatment. The aim of this study is to characterize this group of patients with respect to their sociodemographic features, health status, and reasons for attending an emergency department.
methodsPiNo Nord is a cross-sectional observational study representing two full working weeks in five different hospitals. Patients were questioned in personal interviews, and medical diagnoses were documented. The data were analyzed with multivariate logistic regressions in mixed multilevel models. Predictors for the subjectively perceived treatment urgency were identified by stepwise backward selection.
resultsThe 1175 patients questioned had an average age of 41.8 years and 52.9% were male. 54.7% said the degree of their treatment urgency was low. 41.3% had visited the emergency department on their own initiative, 17.0% on the advice or referral of their primary care physician, and 8.0% on the advice or referral of a specialist. The strongest predictors for low subjective treatment urgency were musculoskeletal trauma (odds ratio [OR] 2.18), skin conditions (OR 2.15), and the momentary unavailability of a primary care physician (OR 1.70).
conclusionMore than half of the patients do not think their condition requires urgent treatment and thus do not meet the definition of a medical emergency. Patients' reasons for visiting the emergency department are varied; aside from the treatment urgency of the health condition itself, the reason may lie in perceived structural circumstances and individual preferences.
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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.