Logo

Log In Sign Up |  An official publication of: American College of Emergency Physicians
Navigation
  • Home
  • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
  • Clinical
    • Airway Managment
    • Case Reports
    • Critical Care
    • Guidelines
    • Imaging & Ultrasound
    • Pain & Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Resuscitation
    • Trauma & Injury
  • Resource Centers
    • mTBI Resource Center
  • Career
    • Practice Management
      • Benchmarking
      • Reimbursement & Coding
      • Care Team
      • Legal
      • Operations
      • Quality & Safety
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Compensation
    • Early Career
    • Education
    • Leadership
    • Profiles
    • Retirement
    • Work-Life Balance
  • Columns
    • ACEP4U
    • Airway
    • Benchmarking
    • Brief19
    • By the Numbers
    • Coding Wizard
    • EM Cases
    • End of the Rainbow
    • Equity Equation
    • FACEPs in the Crowd
    • Forensic Facts
    • From the College
    • Images in EM
    • Kids Korner
    • Medicolegal Mind
    • Opinion
      • Break Room
      • New Spin
      • Pro-Con
    • Pearls From EM Literature
    • Policy Rx
    • Practice Changers
    • Problem Solvers
    • Residency Spotlight
    • Resident Voice
    • Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine
    • Sound Advice
    • Special OPs
    • Toxicology Q&A
    • WorldTravelERs
  • Resources
    • ACEP.org
    • ACEP Knowledge Quiz
    • Issue Archives
    • CME Now
    • Annual Scientific Assembly
      • ACEP14
      • ACEP15
      • ACEP16
      • ACEP17
      • ACEP18
      • ACEP19
    • Annals of Emergency Medicine
    • JACEP Open
    • Emergency Medicine Foundation
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Medical Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Awards
    • Authors
    • Article Submission
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Information

Frequent ED Users Often Need Extra Help Accessing Health Resources

By Cedric Dark, MD, MPH, FACEP | on February 17, 2021 | 0 Comment
Policy Rx
  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Print-Friendly Version
shutterstock.com
shutterstock.com

Recently, one of our frequent emergency department users, an older woman with alabaster skin who I had last seen sitting in her motorized scooter outside our hospital one crisp fall morning, died. For emergency physicians, our weekly and sometimes daily interactions with patients who seem to return time and time again to the department can cause us to forge a close relationship with them, an experience that we often do not have with the vast majority of people who cross our paths. 

You Might Also Like
  • Frequent Emergency Department User Stats and Resources
  • ACEP Offers COVID-19 Vaccine Resources and More
  • ACEP Has COVID-19 Resources and Help for Emergency Physicians
Explore This Issue
ACEP Now: Vol 40 – No 02 – February 2021

Our relationship with frequent ED users can be complicated. Many of these interactions can feel like aggravations because of the subacute nature of their medical needs. But over time, if we allow ourselves to be open to it, we bond with such patients and they become like family. These individuals often come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and have complicating problems such as substance abuse and mental health issues. All of this can make it more difficult for them to engage in meaningful, long-lasting relationships with primary care physicians. In reality, due to our 24-7 availability, we in the emergency department become their primary care doctors, struggling mightily to reconcile their medications, address acute problems, and link them to the right care. One of our roles then must be to work diligently to assure that frequent ED users can access appropriate community resources.

While we all hope that the COVID-19 pandemic comes to a conclusion in 2021, emergency physicians must assure that our family of frequent ED users has the resources to weather this continuing storm. The resources that better-connected patients, those without mental health and substance abuse issues, have available to them—portable oxygen, the ability to safely quarantine, and effective pharmaceutical countermeasures against the virus—need to be available to our frequent ED user family as well. 

As vaccinations become available to the public, we must be sure that those who are most vulnerable also receive protection. In our community in Texas, we have partnered with hotels to provide safe spaces for quarantine to prevent spread of COVID-19 in homeless shelters and group homes. Drugs shown effective in treating COVID-19, remdesivir and dexamethasone, are available to patients requiring hospital admission. However, providing portable oxygen to patients who lack financial means or who might not be able to reliably keep up with expensive durable medical goods but who otherwise would not need hospital-based services remains challenging and often requires an out-of-pocket payment of at least $120 per month for those without health insurance coverage. 

I had a vision of my recently passed patient—pleasant, smiling, and happy—and in this dream, I imagined her real family at her side, caring for her as our emergency department family had done countless times and as we will do for the next person who takes her place as one of our most frequent visitors. I worry, however, that the unique strain that COVID-19 imparts on frequent ED users could prove fatal if we are not tuned into the needs of the most vulnerable members of our communities.

Pages: 1 2 | Single Page

Topics: Mental HealthSubstance AbuseVaccinationVaccine

Related

  • Opinion: The Hidden Power of Doing Less—A New Perspective on Clinician Wellness

    June 24, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • June 2025 News from the College

    June 5, 2025 - 0 Comment
  • March 2025 News from the College

    March 8, 2025 - 0 Comment

Current Issue

ACEP Now: June 2025 (Digital)

Read More

About the Author

Cedric Dark, MD, MPH, FACEP

A graduate of Morehouse College, Cedric Dark, MD, MPH, FACEP earned his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. He holds a master’s degree from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He completed his residency training at George Washington University where he served as chief resident. Currently, Dr. Dark is an associate professor at the Henry J. N. Taub Department of Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Dark is the 2017 recipient of the Texas Medical Association’s C. Frank Webber Award, a 2019 American College of Emergency Physicians Choosing Wisely Champion, the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association 2021 Joseph F. Waeckerle Alumni of the Year Award, one of emergency medicine’s Top 45 Under 45, and on Elemental’s List of 50 Experts to Trust in a Pandemic. He is currently on the Board of Directors for Doctors for America and the medical editor-in-chief for ACEP Now, the official voice of emergency medicine. .

View this author's posts »

No Responses to “Frequent ED Users Often Need Extra Help Accessing Health Resources”

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*
*

Wiley
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Advertise
  • Cookie Preferences
Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 2333-2603