Profile of Frequent Attenders to a Dublin Inner City Emergency Department.

A retrospective review of the demographics, co-morbidities and substance misuse of the 20 most frequent presenters to the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital emergency department during 2014 was carried out in an attempt to better understand the epidemiology of their presentations. Eighty-five percent were male and 15% female (p<0.001). The average age was 40.6 years with a median 38.5 years. All were unemployed and 7 (35%) had no fixed abode. Thirteen patients (65%) lived an average of 4.5 kilometres from the ED. In this study the presence of a mental illness, homelessness, alcohol or drug misuse were associated with significantly higher attendance rates (p=0.001, p<0.001, p<0.05, p<0.001 respectively). Early identification of these patients and targeting them for effective case-based community-led treatment strategies could improve their quality of life, decrease their cost of care and ultimately lead to more effective utilisation of our already overburdened emergency departments.