While it has often been said that the most frequent users of overburdened hospital emergency departments are mentally ill substance abusers, results of a study just released by researchers from NYU Wagner and the University of California, San Francisco, has found that this belief is unfounded - an "urban legend."
(T)he new analysis of hospital emergency department (ED) use in New York City by Medicaid patients reveals that conditions related to substance abuse and mental illness are responsible for a small share of the emergency department visits by frequent ED users, and that ED use accounts for a small portion of these patients' total Medicaid expenditures. However, according to the study, frequent emergency department users have a substantial burden of disease, often having multiple chronic conditions and many hospitalizations.