REDEFINING FREQUENT UTILIZATION 

Our research sought to redefine and characterize frequent utilization, discovering for the first time and contrary to the prevailing view, that frequent users were a heterogeneous, rather than a homogeneous, group. In this first study to examine emergency department (ED) visit characteristics and resource utilization defining levels of frequent use, our research found that frequent ED users previously thought to over-utilize the ED for socioeconomic or insignificant medical problems are as sick as less frequent ED users. Our findings have implications for policy makers targeting frequent users to reduce hospital overcrowding and lower costs. 

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