Asthma is common, resulting in 53 million emergency department (ED) visits annually. Little is known about variation in cost and quality of ED asthma care.

We sought to describe variation in costs and 7-day ED revisit rates for asthma care across EDs. Our primary objective was to test for an association between ED costs and the likelihood of a 7-day revisit for another asthma exacerbation.

We used the 2014 Florida State Emergency Department Database to perform an observational study of ED visits by patients ≥18 years old with a primary diagnosis of asthma that were discharged home. We compared patient and hospital characteristics of index ED discharges with and without 7-day revisits, then tested the association between ED revisits and index ED costs. Multilevel regression was performed to account for hospital-level clustering.

In 2014, there were 54,060 adult ED visits for asthma resulting in discharge, and 1667 (3%) were associated with an asthma-related ED revisit within 7 days. Median cost for an episode of ED asthma care was $597 with an interquartile range of $371–980. After adjusting for both patient and hospital characteristics, lack of insurance was associated with higher odds of revisit (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.18–1.71), while private insurance, female gender, and older age were associated with lower odds of revisit. Hospital costs were not associated with ED revisits (OR = 1.00; 95% CI 1.00–1.00).

Hospital costs associated with ED asthma visits vary but are not associated with odds of ED revisit.

Asthma

ED revisits

Cost variation

Emergency medicine

Health services research

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