Examining emergency department inequities in Aotearoa New Zealand: Findings from a national retrospective observational study examining Indigenous emergency care outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: There is increasing evidence that EDs may not operate equitably for all patients, with Indigenous and minoritised ethnicity patients experiencing longer wait times for assessment, differential pain management and less evaluation and treatment of acute conditions. METHODS: This retrospective observational study used a Kaupapa Maori framework to investigate ED admissions into 18/20 District Health Boards in Aotearoa New Zealand (2006-2012). Key pre-admission variable was ethnicity (Maori:non-Maori), and outcome variables included: ED self-discharge; ED arrival to assessment time; hospital re-admission within 72 h; ED re-presentation within 72 h; ED length of stay; ward length of stay; access block and mortality (in ED or within 10 days of ED departure). Generalised linear regression models controlled for year of presentation, sex, age, deprivation, triage category and comorbidity. RESULTS: Despite some ED process measures favouring Maori, for example arrival to assessment time (mean difference -2.14 min; 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.42 to -1.86) and access block (odds ratio [OR] 0.89, 95% CI 0.87-0.91), others showed no difference, for example self-discharge (OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-1.00). Despite this, Maori mortality (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.50-1.71) and ED re-presentation (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.09-1.12) were higher than non-Maori. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive investigation of acute outcomes by ethnicity to date in New Zealand. We found ED mortality inequities that are unlikely to be explained by ED process measures or comorbidities. Our findings reinforce the need to investigate health professional bias and institutional racism within an acute care context.

Examining emergency department inequities: Descriptive analysis of national data (2006-2012).

OBJECTIVE: Internationally, Indigenous and minoritised ethnic groups experience longer wait times, differential pain management and less evaluation and treatment for acute conditions within emergency medicine care. Examining ED Inequities (EEDI) aims to investigate whether inequities between Maori and non-Maori exist within EDs in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). This article presents the descriptive findings for the present study. METHODS: A retrospective observational study framed from a Kaupapa Maori positioning, EEDI uses secondary data from emergency medicine admissions into 18/20 District Health Boards in NZ between 2006 and 2012. Data sources include variables from the Shorter Stays in ED National Research Project database and comorbidity data from NZ's National Minimum Dataset. The key predictor of interest is patient ethnicity with descriptive variables, including sex, age group, area deprivation, mode of presentation, referral method, Australasian Triage Scale and trauma status. RESULTS: There were a total of 5 972 102 ED events (1 168 944 Maori, 4 803 158 non-Maori). We found an increasing proportion of ED events per year, with a higher proportion of Maori from younger age groups and areas of high deprivation compared to non-Maori events. Maori also had a higher proportion of self-referral and were triaged to be seen within a longer time frame compared to non-Maori. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that there are different patterns of ED usage when comparing Maori and non-Maori events. The next level of analysis of the EEDI dataset will be to examine whether there are any associations between ethnicity and ED outcomes for Maori and non-Maori patients.