ArticleBMJ open2020
Factors associated with non-urgent visits to the emergency department in a tertiary care centre, western Saudi Arabia: cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Drivers of Emergency Department Use Among Oncology Patients in the Era of Novel Cancer Therapeutics: A Systematic Review.The oncologist · 2023Pooled it
- Factors Influencing Non-urgent Emergency Department Visits: A Review of the Causes and Impact.Cureus · 2026Review
- Understanding functional diversity in public primary health care: a cluster analysis of utilization patterns.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Current situation and influencing factors of emergency department visits by non-urgent young and middle-aged patients in China: A retrospective study.Belitung nursing journal · 2026Article
- The Dermatology Fast Track as a Model for Integrated Care Pathways Between Emergency Medicine and Outpatient Specialty Services.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Why do patients seek emergency care for problems that could be managed in primary care? A scoping review.Family practice · 2025Article
- Streamlining emergency nursing care post-pandemic: A lean approach for reducing wait times and improving patient and staff satisfaction in the hospital.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Code Not-So-Blue: Burden and Predictors of Non-urgent Visits to the Surgical Emergency Room in Peshawar, Pakistan.Cureus · 2025Article
- Activity, triage levels and impact of the pandemic on hospital emergency departments: A multicentre cross-sectional study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Observational
- Health inequalities under decentralized governance: challenges in resource allocation and funding in Greece.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- Sick leave issuance in an obstetrics and gynecology emergency room in Saudi Arabia: Insights for public health and family medicine.SAGE open medicine · 2025Article
- Characteristics and reasons non-urgent self-referred patients visit the emergency department in Kimberley, South Africa.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2025Article
- Article
- Inappropriate Use of Emergency Services from the Perspective of Primary Care Underutilization in a Local Romanian Context: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Breaking the Emergency Room Cycle: The Impact of Telemedicine on Emergency Department Utilization.Cureus · 2024Article
- Epidemiology of herpes zoster in National Guard Hospitals in Saudi Arabia: a 6-year retrospective chart review study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Patients and Health Professionals' Perceptions of Primary Health Care Services in Saudi Arabia: A Scoping Review.International journal of general medicine · 2024Article
- A Systematic Review of the Causes, Consequences, and Solutions of Emergency Department Overcrowding in Saudi Arabia.Cureus · 2023Review
- An integrative review of adult patient-reported reasons for non-urgent use of the emergency department.BMC nursing · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo explore magnitude and factors associated with non-urgent visits to the emergency department (ED) in a tertiary care centre, western Saudi Arabia.
designA cross-sectional study.
settingED of a tertiary care hospital in western Saudi Arabia.
participants400 patients, both men and women.
interventionsAn interview-based questionnaire was administered to a consecutive sample of patients who visited the ED during morning shifts, where primary healthcare centres (PHCs) and outpatient clinics were available. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: ED visits classified as non-urgent versus urgent (excluding life-threatening conditions) based on the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS). Levels IV and V were classified as non-urgent.
resultsMajority of the cases were adult (97.3%) and half of them were women (54.8%). Non-urgent visits represented 78.5% among non-life-threatening cases. One-third of the patients (33.8%) had three visits or more to the ED during the past year. Main reasons for visiting the ED were perception that the condition was urgent (42.0%), easy access (25.5%) and limited resources and services at the PHCs (17.8%). Patients 40-50 years old were more likely to have non-urgent visits (OR=3.21, 95% CI 1.15 to 8.98). However, likelihood of non-urgent visits was significantly lower among patients with cancer (OR=0.37, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.72) and cardiovascular disease (OR=0.43, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.83), and those who live near the hospital (OR=0.49, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.88).
conclusionsThe current study reported overuse of the ED. Enhancement of the primary care services, in concordance with community awareness, is an important component to reduce burden due to non-urgent use of the ED.
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