DISCUSSION POST #2.1—GOOGLE SCHOLAR ARTICLE ANALYSIS:
Using Google Scholar as your search engine, identify one article published since 2020
on the topic of "emergency medicine cost" or "emergency department utilization."
Initial Post
Please provide a link to the article so your peers can read it. Describe the strengths and
weaknesses of the article and explain your reasoning. Use the following example as
inspiration for your posts.
Example of strengths:
Relevant topic
Large and representative sample size
Results are generalizable
Examples of weaknesses:
Data is dated
Findings are not robust and consistent across the different models
Small sample size
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01382-8
Article: Emergency Department Utilization Among Undocumented Latino Patients During the
COVID-19 Pandemic
Published: August 18, 2022
This study investigated whether Latino undocumented immigrants had a steeper decline in
Emergency Department (ED) utilization compared to Latino Medicare patients in a Los Angeles
safety-net hospital from March 3, 2020, to May 8, 2020. This study specifically looked at this
specific population in California given California not only contains 10.5 million undocumented
Latino immigrants, but additionally, around this time, stay-at-home orders left undocumented
immigrants without any financial relief that the rest of the country was allotted. In addition, the
early stages of the pandemic also coincided with the public charge rule change instituted by the
Trump Administration at the end of February 2020. This new rule expanded the definition of
“public charge” to include a broader set of public resources that could bar immigrants from
receiving a green card, and thus opening the potential for undocumented immigrants to respond
by avoiding health care visits.
Strengths:
Relevant topic: This population prior to the pandemic was already disconnected from
health care services/access, therefore, during the beginning of the pandemic with stay-at-
home orders in place, no federal financial relief checks coming their way, as well as
