Research to Prevent Blindness Supports Study Finding 1 In 4 ER Visits for Eye Problems Aren’t Actually Emergencies
A new study finds that nearly one in four people who seek emergency care for eye problems have mild conditions, and recommends ways to help those patients get the right level of care.
The national study, led by University of Michigan researchers, looks at nearly 377,000 eye-related emergency room visits by adults with private insurance over a 14-year period. The team has published its results in the journal Ophthalmology.
Nearly 86,500 of those visits were for three conditions that don’t ever need emergency treatment, and cost much more to treat in an emergency setting while also adding to ER crowding. Only about 25,300 were for clear eye emergencies. The rest were somewhere in the middle...