National Trends in Leukemia Related Emergency Department Visits, Health Care Burden and Disposition Rate in the United States, 2010-2014
Authors: Bakr Mohamed Mokhtar , Zahid Umar , Tenneti Pavan , Al-Hillan Alsadiq Waleed , Anwer Faiz 
Published: October 2019

National Trends in Leukemia Related Emergency Department Visits, Health Care Burden and Disposition Rate in the United States, 2010-2014.

Background:

Recently emergency department (ED) utilization has been increasing for the management of acute conditions. Utilization of ED healthcare services by hematology and oncology patients have been documented previously. Cancer patients frequently visit the EDs with acute symptoms, that may require further assessment, management, and even hospitalization. Whether the incidence of leukemia related ED visits has altered is unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze the trend of leukemia related ED visits, healthcare cost associated with the visit and the discharge disposition from ED.

Methods:

We utilized Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) dataset for this study. NEDS is a part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) database and contains the information of more than 950 United States (US) hospitals that is weighted to the national estimates. We used five years of data from 2010 to 2014 to examine the trends in prevalence and rates of ED visits, cost, and disposition (such as admission, discharge and death in ED). We defined patients with leukemia (acute myeloid, chronic myeloid, acute lymphocytic, and chronic lymphocytic leukemias) by using the international classification of disease, 9th revision, clinical modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. Cochrane-Armitage test was used to assess the trend of leukemia ER visits over five years. We used estimated US census population to calculate the rate of leukemia related ED visits. Furthermore, we assessed the predictors of hospital admission by using multivariable logistic regression model.

Results:

Between 2010 to 2014, a nationally weighted estimate of 771,510 patients visited ED with leukemia. The frequency of leukemia related ED visits increased 21.7% from 138,038 to 167,935 during this period that accounted for 0.12% of all ED visits. The rate of leukemia related ED visits increased 20.5% from 44 to 53 per 100,000 census population, which was statistically significant (p=0.04) on a trend test. The total national cost of leukemia related visit increased by 81% from $544 million in 2010 to $984 million in 2014 (p-value<0.001). While the mean cost of each leukemia related ED visit increased 50.7% from $2367 in 2010 to $3566 in 2014 (p-value <0.001). Rate of discharge to home from ED for leukemia related visits increased 31.6% (from 22.88% in 2010 to 30.12% in 2014) (p<0.05). Similarly, the rate of in hospital admission decreased 9% from 2010 to 2014. The rate of death in a leukemia related visit remained same (0.17%) from 2010 to 2013 but in 2014 death rate increased from 0.17% to 0.23% (p-value >0.05). In an adjusted multivariable logistic regression analysis, increasing age (OR 1.02 95% CI 1.024, 1.027), male gender (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.114, 1.188), patient location in metropolitan area (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.88, 2.22) and northeast location (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03, 1.32) were found to be significantly associated with the higher odds of in hospital admission following leukemia related ED visits. While few other variables like residents of higher income quartile and those holding Medicaid, insurance were also found to be positively associated with the hospitalization but were not statistically significant (OR>1.00, p>0.05).

Conclusions:

There is an increasing trend of leukemia related ED utilization and associated total and mean/median costs over time, while the rate of hospitalization for leukemia associated visit from ED have decreased. Oncology providers need to plan care accordingly to reduce ER visits and hospital admission for patients with leukemia.

Disclosures

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.