noun General Slang

frequent flyer

· noun · medical

Patient who keeps turning up to A&E like it's a loyalty scheme.

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Definitions

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ED slang for the patient who's back again, and again, and again. Sometimes it's chronic illness with no GP to fall back on. Sometimes it's mental health, addiction, or nowhere else to go. Sometimes it's just somebody who's worked out where the warmth and sandwiches are. Officially called 'super-utilisers' in polite write-ups; staff just say frequent flyer. A small handful drive a huge slice of total visits — one San Diego hospital found 3% of patients accounted for 16.5% of ED traffic.

“Triage rolled her eyes — he's a frequent flyer, third time this month.”
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frequent flyer In A Sentence

Triage rolled her eyes — he's a frequent flyer, third time this month.

Origin & Usage

Borrowed from airline loyalty programmes; widespread in US/UK emergency medicine since the 90s.

Variants super-utilizersuper-user
Tags #medical#hospital#ed#emergency#patients

People Also Ask

Is it pejorative?

Yes — and the bias is documented to make clinicians slower to take new symptoms seriously. Hence the push to retire it.

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