Elderly patients' use of hospital-based emergency services.

Past studies have shown in many instances that elderly people are represented in the hospital emergency room in proportion to their distribution in the population. It is possible, though, that elderly patients in the emergency room are using different types of resources than individuals of a younger age. Samples of two hospital emergency room users were selected in 1981 and in 1986. Patients aged 25 years or older were included in the study. The dependent variable was the extent to which patients used resources available at the hospital emergency room only or at alternative emergency medical services in the community. The effect of age on the use of resources in the hospital emergency rooms was estimated separately for those who were transported to the emergency room by ambulance and for those who were not. Age had an effect on use of resources under both conditions, regardless of the patients' gender, time of the visits, availability of alternative sources of emergency care, and diagnostic categories. The role of the hospital emergency room is to address medical care needs of specific segments of the population in special circumstances. Elderly emergency room patients are indeed one of these specific segments with very special needs.