Persons 65 years and older (older persons), particularly residents of nursing homes (NHs), disproportionately access the emergency department (ED) and utilize more medical resources. The goal of this study is to provide a contemporary description of healthcare utilization patterns and disposition decisions for United States (US) NH residents presenting to EDs.

Older persons presenting to EDs in the US were identified in the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) 2017, 2018 and 2019 datasets. We examined demographic, clinical, and resource use characteristics and outcomes. After survey weighting, we compared the frequency of different imaging, medications, clinical interventions, and outcomes in the ED between NH residents and those residing outside NHs.

From 2017 to 2019, older persons made 24,441,285 annual visits to the ED, comprising 17.5% of all visits. Among these, 1,579,916 visits (6.5%) were by NH residents. Compared with non-NH residents, NH residents were older (mean age: 81.2 [95%CI 81.5–82.9] vs 76.1 [95%CI 75.8–76.4]), underwent more imaging (82.8% [95%CI 79.5–86.1] vs 71.6% [95%CI 69.9–73.3]), were administered fewer potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in the ED or upon discharge (9.5% [95%CI 6.2–2.7] vs 17.1% [95%CI 15.8–18.4]), and had a higher proportion of visits resulting in hospital admission (44.1% [95%CI 38.2–49.9] vs 26.0% [95%CI 23.3, 28.7]).

Older NH residents presenting to the ED use more resources and are more likely to be hospitalized compared to older persons residing outside NHs. The resource-intensive nature of these visits highlights the importance of targeted, multi-disciplinary interventions that optimize ED care for this population.