Predictors of Emergency Room and Hospital Utilization Among Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).

Amaral et al. (2019) looked at health records for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

They wanted to know who lands in the ER or hospital most often.

The team counted chronic illnesses, medicines, living setting, and other health facts.

Older adults with more illnesses, cerebral palsy, mental illness, or many medicines had the most ER trips.

Living in supported living raised ER risk, while living in a group home lowered hospital admission risk.

Age and chronic illness also raised the chance of being admitted to the hospital.

Sutton et al. (2022) extends these findings by showing adults with ID are admitted from the ER four times more than others.

Patton et al. (2020) zooms in on one cause: medicine errors send adults with IDD to the hospital 28% more often.

Nijs et al. (2016) seems to disagree: in Norway, adults with ID are hospitalized only marginally more than the general public. The gap is smaller there, likely because Norway's health system gives everyone steady primary care.

If you serve adults with IDD, flag clients who are older, have multiple diagnoses, or take many meds. These adults are the ones most likely to show up in crisis. Work with nurses and doctors to schedule regular medication reviews and chronic-disease checkups. A five-minute call to the primary-care doctor can replace a five-hour ER wait.