Nearly one in four people seek emergency care for eye conditions that are not emergencies, according to a study in Ophthalmology.
Investigators examined nearly 377,000 eye-related emergency room visits by adults with private insurance over a 14-year period.
Here are four insights:
1. Nearly 86,500 of the 377,000 visits were for three conditions that don't require emergency treatment — conjunctivitis, blepharitis and chalazion.
2. Only about 25,300 were for clear eye emergencies.
3. Younger people, men, those with lower incomes, those with dementia and people of color were more likely to seek emergency care for non-emergency eye conditions.
4. However, those who had been seeing an eye specialist on a regular basis before the eye-related ER visit were much less likely to seek emergency care for a non-urgent condition.
"Our findings suggest that eye-care professionals, insurers and emergency providers should work together to help people get the care they need for emerging eye issues, in the right setting," said Brian Stagg, MD, the study's lead author and a clinical researcher at the University of Michigan's Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation in Ann Arbor.