The LUNAR project: A description of the population of individuals who seek health care at emergency departments.

INTRODUCTION: Although little information exists about the consumers of emergency services and their illness behaviors, such information is essential for decision making by providers, administrators, and policy makers. The purpose of the LUNAR Project was to describe the population of individuals who seek health care at emergency departments.

METHODS: After they attended a training course, 90 emergency nurses served as site coordinators in 89 emergency departments in 35 states. A standardized protocol was used to collect data retrospectively from 140 randomly selected patient records at each site. The final sample included 12,422 ED patients.

RESULTS: Overall, 52% of the patient visits were for nonurgent care, 40% were for urgent care, and 8% were for emergent care. Most visits occurred between 10 AM and 8 PM and peaked at 6 PM. Children and younger adults were the largest consumers of services, primarily for nonurgent care. The most frequent reasons for visits were fever, chest pain, and abdominal pain, and the most common discharge diagnoses were middle ear infection, chest pain, and acute upper respiratory infection.

DISCUSSION: The profile of ED patients showed a need for new types of services to provide nonurgent care and new interventions for preventing illnesses and injuries commonly treated in the emergency department.