A new study from the University of Michigan has found about 1 in 4 emergency room visits for eye problems are not actual emergencies.
Researchers reportedly studied about 377,000 eye-related ER visits by adults with private insurance over a 14-year time span. They found about 86,500 of those visits were for three conditions — conjunctivitis, blepharitis and chalazion — that do not normally need emergency treatment. They also found younger people, men, those with lower incomes or dementia, and people of color were more likely to seek emergency care for those three conditions.
Researchers also found patients who have been seeing an eye specialist — either an optometrist or ophthalmologist — on a regular basis prior to their eye-related ER visit were much less likely to seek emergency care for an uncritical eye issue.
Investigators reportedly believe their findings suggest eye care professionals, insurers and emergency providers should work together to help people get the care they need for emerging eye issues, in the proper setting, in an effort to help reduce inappropriate emergency care for routine eye issues.
The study was recently published in the journal Ophthalmology.
Click here to read the full press release.
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Source: University of Michigan