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. 2020 Jun 9;17(11):4122.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17114122.

Predictors of High Resource Consumption in Alcohol Intoxicated Patients in the Emergency Department

Katharina Rönz  1   2 , Trevor Hirschi  3 , Sebastian Becker  1 , Gert Krummrey  1 , Aristomenis K Exadaktylos  1 , Thomas C Sauter  1   4 , Wolf E Hautz  1 , Martin Müller  1   5
Affiliations

Predictors of High Resource Consumption in Alcohol Intoxicated Patients in the Emergency Department

Katharina Rönz et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: previous studies have reported that the incidence of alcohol-related visits to emergency departments (ED) has increased, but little is known about how the necessary resources per visit have changed, or about the predictors and reasons for resource consumption. Methods: a retrospective analysis was performed of all consultations with a primary or secondary diagnosis of acute alcohol intoxication admitted to the ED of Bern University Hospital, Switzerland, between 1 June 2012, and 31 May 2017. Clinical characteristics and resource consumption were extracted and analysed over time. Results: in all, 196,045 ED consultations included 2586 acute alcohol intoxications, corresponding to 1.3% of the total. The incidences of acute alcohol intoxications have tended to increase over the last five years, and a growing number of visits have consumed high resources (consultations above the 75th percentile for total resource consumption). High resource consumption was associated with greater age and the male gender (p < 0.001). The main predictors of resource consumption were fractures (Odds ratio (OR): 3.9, 95% CI 2.8-5.3, p < 0.001), dislocations (OR 3.7, 95%: 1.5-9.1, p < 0.001), and traumatic brain injury (3.5, 2.5-5.1, p < 0.001). Consultations consuming high resources mostly required radiology resources (45%); consultations consuming low or normal resources mostly required physicians' work (45%) or nurses' work (27%). Conclusions: the number of alcohol intoxications consuming high resources has increased over the last five years. Acute alcohol intoxication associated with trauma is resource intensive, especially with regard to radiology resources. This underlines the need for further efforts to prevent alcohol-related traffic accidents, for examples.

Keywords: alcohol intoxication; alcoholism; emergency admissions; emergency departments utilisation.

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Conflict of interest statement

W.E.H. received speaker honorariums from the AO Foundation in Zurich and research funding from Mundipharme Medical Basel. T.C.S. has received research grants or lecture fees from Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Daiichi-Sankyo and the Gottfried and Julia Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation. All other authors have nothing to disclose and declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of alcohol intoxications per month over the course of the study, according to type of resource consumption.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of the distribution of the total work according to the different resource categories according to type of resource consumption.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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