Health Status and Healthcare Utilization

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  Preventable Emergency Department Utilization Among Patients With Foster Care History Compared to Patients Without Foster Care History

  Lauren Malthaner, Jill McLeigh, Gregory Knell, Katelyn Jetelina, Folefac Atem, and Sarah Messiah

  Emergency department (ED) utilization for preventable reasons by patients with foster care history is unexplored. Medical records of ED encounters from primary care patients were pulled from a southwestern children's hospital system. Necessity of ED encounter was categorized using the New York University- ED Algorithm into emergent, intermediate, or non-emergent. Associations were explored at the encounter- and patient-level. Partial proportional logistic models generated odds of preventable (i.e., intermediate or nonemergent) ED utilization among encounters, and Poisson models determined incidence of preventable ED use at the patient level. Findings suggested that when a patient with history in foster care used the ED, the odds that it was preventable were lower than if the child did not have such experience. Further, patients with foster care history were less likely to use the ED for concerns that did not need immediate attention but were more likely to use the ED for intermediate reasons.

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  The Impact of Health Status on Health Care Utilization of Children in Foster Care

  Jill McLeigh, Gunjan Singh, and Rong Huang

  This study sought to understand the health status of children in foster care; the relationship between their health status and health care utilization; and demographic and placement factors associated with health care utilization.

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  Healthcare Utilization Patterns Among Children With a History of Child Protective Services Investigations

  Christian Carr, Jill McLeigh, Heidi Kloster, Jessica Fults, Jennifer Gonzalez, Corron Sanders, Michiko Clutter, and Katelyn Jetelina

  Examine whether children with a prior child protective services (CPS) investigation had different healthcare utilization compared to children without a history of CPS investigations.