EDs That Serve Poor Populations Have Highest Rate of Patients Leaving Without Being Seen

An emergency department's (ED's) rate of left without being seen (LWBS) is often reported as an outcome measure representing the ED's ability to care for the patient population it serves. Many factors contribute to a patient's decision to leave without being seen and are most often related to perceptions of access to care and wait times. In a retrospective review of 9.2 million visits to nonfederal EDs in California during 2007, researchers assessed rates of LWBS and their association with patient and hospital characteristics.

During the study period, the LWBS rate at individual hospitals ranged from 0% to 20.3% (median, 2.6%). In multivariate analysis that controlled for hospitals' socioeconomic mix, EDs with a higher proportion of low-inco…