Monitoring of characteristics of the patients visiting an emergency center in Cameroon through the development of hospital patient database

Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have struggled to utilize health information technology and thus lack in accurate patient data. This paper describes the method of collecting patient data and patient characteristics in an emergency centre in Yaoundé, Cameroon. We developed an Epi Info(TM)-based data entry form to collect data of the patients who visited the Centre des Urgences de Yaoundé (CURY) from January 2016 to June 2018. Demographic, clinical symptoms, treatments and outcome data were collected. Additional data on the patients with multiple trauma, chest pain, sepsis/septic shock, and stroke were also collected. During the study period, a total of 18,875 patients’ data were collected (44.5% women, median age of 36). Of the total patients, 2.4% had chest pain, 2.7% had stroke, 1.9% had sepsis/septic shock, and 1.6% had multiple trauma. About 6.0% patients received operation and majority of patients were discharged either normally (48.2%) or with continuity of care (26.3%). About 5.0% of patients were transferred to other hospital and 5.2% of patients were dead. This study serves to broaden understanding of the emergency patients in Yaoundé, Cameroon.