The poorest residents of Allentown were significantly more likely to make multiple emergency room visits in a year than the city’s wealthiest residents, according to St. Luke’s University Health Network’s latest community health needs assessment.
City residents with insurance did not face many barriers to basic care, with about 93% saying they saw their primary care provider within the last year and less than 3% saying they didn’t have a primary provider. But the rates for uninsured residents was far lower, St. Luke’s survey found: Only 62% said they had seen their primary provider in the last year and nearly 10% didn’t have one.
Dr. Rajika Reed, vice president of community health for St. Luke’s, said this is reflected in emergency room visits. Among Allentown residents who made less than $15,000 per year, 24% visited an emergency room three or more times. Conversely, of those who made $60,000 or more per year, just 2.1% made multiple visits to the emergency room…