A profile of attenders to a south Dublin city accident and emergency department
| Autor: | M. Laffoy, G. Keye, B. O’Herlihy |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1997 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male medicine.medical_specialty Minor injury Adolescent Severity of Illness Index Hospitals Urban Health care Severity of illness medicine Humans Child Referral and Consultation Aged Chi-Square Distribution business.industry Data Collection Accident and emergency General Medicine Middle Aged Hospitalization Child Preschool Emergency medicine Female business Emergency Service Hospital Chi-squared distribution Ireland |
| Zdroj: | Irish journal of medical science. 166(1) |
| ISSN: | 0021-1265 |
| Popis: | All new patients attending a Dublin Hospital's Accident and Emergency (AE) Department were surveyed to document their reasons for attending and to make comparisons between self-referred and GP referred groups. Of the 557 responders 395 (70.9%) were self-referred. Four-fifths of this group said they had a GP but only 6.6 per cent attempted to contact the GP before attending. Compared with GP referred patients the self-referred group were more likely to be under 45 (74.6 per cent v 59.8 per cent, P0.01) and have soft tissue injuries (57 per cent v 32.9 per cent, P0.01). They were less likely to require laboratory investigation or to be admitted to hospital (11 per cent v 31.2 per cent, P0.01). It is likely many of the self-referred patients could have been managed by a GP. However, AE departments remain popular sources of treatment for patients with a wide variety of conditions. Current methods of delivering health care to patients with minor conditions require assessment so that patient demands for both a responsive minor injury and emergency service can be met. Almost 70 per cent of all hospital admissions originated from the AE department. This makes rational planning and management of booked admissions difficult. GPs who refer patients for admission should have an alternative route to hospital beds besides the AE department. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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