2015 Volume 16 Issue 1 Pages 53-57
There are a significant number of patients with mild symptoms who visit emergency room. Our hospital started to charge out-of-pocket medical cost when patients with mild symptoms visited emergency room after office hours in 2001. This study aims to assess emergency patients after charging out-of pocket medical cost. Outpatient visits per month for emergency room decreased from 2,005 patients to 1,785 patients after charging out-of pocket medical cost while number of inpatients per month for emergency room increased from 220 patients to 240 patients. This indicated that the hospital had shifted to medical treatment for the more serious patients. The result of this study suggested that the hospital was able to be prompted a role of acute clinical setting. However, 7 patients who refused to consult the hospital due to being charged out-of pocket medical cost were hospitalized on the following day. Careful explanation about out-of pocket medical cost seems to be necessary when medical staff provide emergency medical triage system.
