Time-sensitive conditions: Classification, measurement, and implications of preventable emergency department visits and Hospitalizations

Time-sensitive conditions are often urgent and require timely diagnoses and specific treatments, implicating both patients and medical providers. Emergency care research often focuses on the difference between an emergency medical condition and time-sensitive disease. This study reviewed the definition, classification, measurement indicators, and research and policy implications of time-sensitive conditions, which are classified into ambulatory care-sensitive conditions, referral- sensitive surgeries, and critical time-sensitive diseases. This study formulated a measure of a time- sensitive condition based on the perspectives of both laypeople and experts; this study also discussed implications for emergency care medical providers and regarding preventable emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Finally, this article provides the International Classification of Diseases codes for time-sensitive conditions, with the anticipation that they will become more common topics of academic and policy-focused research.