The Revolving Door

High ER Use Among Older Veterans

Bibliographic Data

ID5454923
AuthorsMaria L Claver (California State University-Long Beach, Long Beach, California, USA), Maria Claver (0000-0003-3831-1915, California State University, Long Beach, corresponding author), Lene Levy-Storms (University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA), Lené Levy‐Storms (University of California, Los Angeles)
Year2010
Volume20
Issue3
Pages365-374
Publication date2010-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732309350682
PMID19826079
OpenAlexW2119327887
LanguageEN
References cited31

Why do some older veterans visit the emergency room (ER) frequently? This study expands an existing decision-making model that describes how ER users recognize symptoms of a health problem, decide to seek medical care for the health problem, and decide to visit the ER specifically for the medical care. The focus of this inquiry is the role of older veterans' social support networks in decisions to visit the ER. Data were collected through in-depth, semistructured, in-person interviews with 30 community-dwelling, high-functioning veterans aged 65 years and older who had visited the ER frequently (3 or more times) in the previous year. We found that the older veteran study participants, regardless of the availability of social support, preferred to make decisions independently, relied heavily on formal social support network members, and received various types of assistance to visit the ER from informal social support networks

Focus group · Older people · Political science · Social media · Social support · Sociology · Emergency and Acute Care Studies · Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes · Medicine · Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare · Psychology · Social Psychology · Gerontology