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Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels
Walk-in patients who do not require urgent treatment at an emergency department (ED) are a known and long-standing problem. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of walk-in patients visiting the ED over time. During four days in June 2012, all walk-in patients attending the ED of the Un...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Carol Davila University Press
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6527410/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31123523 http://dx.doi.org/10.25122/jml-2018-0053 |
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author | Hysenbegasi, Merita Hubloue, Ives Vanobberghen, Rita Kartounian, Jan Devroey, Dirk |
author_facet | Hysenbegasi, Merita Hubloue, Ives Vanobberghen, Rita Kartounian, Jan Devroey, Dirk |
author_sort | Hysenbegasi, Merita |
collection | PubMed |
description | Walk-in patients who do not require urgent treatment at an emergency department (ED) are a known and long-standing problem. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of walk-in patients visiting the ED over time. During four days in June 2012, all walk-in patients attending the ED of the University Hospital Brussels between 8 AM and 11 PM were recorded. A similar registration took place in the same ED in June 2001. Patients completed a questionnaire about their characteristics and the reason for the encounter. Data of both study periods were compared. The mean age of the patients attending the ED was significantly lower in 2001 (40.9 years) than in 2012 (43.9 years) (p=0,02). In 2001, 81% of the participants had Belgian nationality, but in 2012 this proportion increased to 90% (p=0.008). In 2001 as well as in 2012, 21% of the participants had a referral from their family physician (FP) (p=0.9). The proportion of patients that were aware that FP could also handle some emergencies increased from 17% in 2001 to 29% in 2012 (p=0.003). More patients had complaints that begun less than 24h before they attended the ED (48% in 2001 and 58% in 2012) (p=0.03). The walk-in patients at the ED are getting slightly older and are attending the ED faster after the onset of the complaints. More patients judge their complaints as urgent. However, more patients are getting aware that FP also could handle some emergencies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6527410 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Carol Davila University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65274102019-05-23 Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels Hysenbegasi, Merita Hubloue, Ives Vanobberghen, Rita Kartounian, Jan Devroey, Dirk J Med Life Original Article Walk-in patients who do not require urgent treatment at an emergency department (ED) are a known and long-standing problem. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of walk-in patients visiting the ED over time. During four days in June 2012, all walk-in patients attending the ED of the University Hospital Brussels between 8 AM and 11 PM were recorded. A similar registration took place in the same ED in June 2001. Patients completed a questionnaire about their characteristics and the reason for the encounter. Data of both study periods were compared. The mean age of the patients attending the ED was significantly lower in 2001 (40.9 years) than in 2012 (43.9 years) (p=0,02). In 2001, 81% of the participants had Belgian nationality, but in 2012 this proportion increased to 90% (p=0.008). In 2001 as well as in 2012, 21% of the participants had a referral from their family physician (FP) (p=0.9). The proportion of patients that were aware that FP could also handle some emergencies increased from 17% in 2001 to 29% in 2012 (p=0.003). More patients had complaints that begun less than 24h before they attended the ED (48% in 2001 and 58% in 2012) (p=0.03). The walk-in patients at the ED are getting slightly older and are attending the ED faster after the onset of the complaints. More patients judge their complaints as urgent. However, more patients are getting aware that FP also could handle some emergencies. Carol Davila University Press 2019 /pmc/articles/PMC6527410/ /pubmed/31123523 http://dx.doi.org/10.25122/jml-2018-0053 Text en ©Carol Davila University Press This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Hysenbegasi, Merita Hubloue, Ives Vanobberghen, Rita Kartounian, Jan Devroey, Dirk Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels |
title | Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels |
title_full | Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels |
title_fullStr | Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels |
title_full_unstemmed | Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels |
title_short | Evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in Brussels |
title_sort | evolution over 11 years of the characteristics of walk-in patients at the emergency department of a university hospital in brussels |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6527410/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31123523 http://dx.doi.org/10.25122/jml-2018-0053 |
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