The Value of the Presence of Social Work in Emergency Departments

Abstract

The value of the presence of social work in emergency rooms is supported by directly examining the hospitalization rates of patients seen by social workers. It utilizes a 3-year-long data set of social work self-reports on medical emergency room outcomes at a large, teaching hospital in the New York Metropolitan area with a sample size of 3370. The study findings suggest that social workers in this acute care hospital's emergency room often are referred the most complex cases. The data on this site indicate that the majority of social work dispositions were to home (54%) or a nursing facility (8.4%). Only 16% of the patients seen by social work were admitted to the hospital. These findings support the cost-effective nature of social work in the emergency room setting and the importance of finding alternatives to hospital admissions. The results of a logistic regression suggest that the criteria used by social workers to assess patients are based on sound psychosocial factors. Patients who were assessed as having "Environmental" (p = .00) or "Relationship" problems (p = .00) were much less likely to be admitted. Conversely, patients with "Care/ADL" problems (p = .00) and behavior problems (p = .00) had a heightened chance of being admitted. Being African American has less effect but was still relevant.