Unscheduled Return Visits to the Emergency Department: Case of University Hospital Center in Tunisia
Journal Title: Journal of Advances in Medicine and Medical Research - Year 2017, Vol 24, Issue 12
Abstract
Introduction: The re-consultation after short period of initial visit is an indicator of health care’s quality offered in the first consultation. They increase health expenditures and reflect a wrong medical care process. Aims: The aims of this work are to determine the rate of reconsultations in Farhat Hached‘s Emergency service, Sousse, Tunisia and analyze the demographic characteristics of these patients in short terms, medical history, their chief complaint in initial consultations and disease progression. Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective descriptive study realized in the polyvalent emergency service of university hospital Farhat Hached over a period of 6 months, starting from January the 1st 2015 to June 2015, covering patients reconsulting in an interval of 7 days. Results: Almost 200 patients needed a second consultation in the 07 next days. The period between 2 consultations in emergency department was 2.66(SD= 1.28) days. The median age of re-consultants was 48 (IQR=17) years old with extremes going from 16 to 84 years. We noticed a predominance of female gender. The most frequent complaints during the first and the second consultations were digestive. The prescribed treatments after first consultations were dominated by antibiotics (39%) and painkillers (34.5%). 49.5% of patients who needed second visit went back home after reconsultations while 50.5% of them needed hospitalization. We have noticed a diagnostic relation established between the two consultations among 140 patients (70%), an aggravation among 65 of them (32%) and 3 deaths (1.5%). Conclusion: We propose to include second and third health care institution as well as the private sector in order to generalize this study’s findings and make it multi-centric.
Authors and Affiliations
Zied Mezgar, Mariem Khrouf, Houda Ben Soltane, Mohamed Mahjoub, Amel Amara, Sihem Ben Fredj, Maher Jdidi, Samar Hajer Sandid, Sarra Zaouali, Ines Waz, Asma Saada, Mehdi Methamem
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP312616
- DOI 10.9734/JAMMR/2017/38329
- Views 91
- Downloads 0
Family Physicians’ Sharing of Personal Information on Facebook
Aims: Online social networks, such as Facebook, are growing in popularity amongst physicians, and represent a potential avenue for the compromising of their privacy and professional boundaries. We sought to determine th...
Identifying Modifiable Socio-demographic Risk Factors for Severe Hyperbilirubinaemia in Late Preterm and Term Babies in Abuja, Nigeria
Background: Severe neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia remains an important cause of neonatal admissions in Nigeria, often giving rise to irreversible neurotoxicity. Access to effective phototherapy is restricted to a few cente...
Analysis of Lip Print for Gender Identification in Karachi (Pakistan) Population
Aims: The grooves and wrinkles over the sulci labiorum forms a specific pattern called lip print. Cheiloscopy is the study of lip printing. Lip prints are unique to an individual similar to finger prints and thus suppor...
Factors Influencing Mortality and Outcome of Burns from a Trauma Registry in Nigeria: A Retrospective Study
Background: Burns injury has a global distribution and contributes to trauma mortality and morbidity. Whereas mortality from burns is reducing in most developed countries, the picture in developing countries such as Nige...
Phytochemistry, Antimicrobial, Antigiardial and Antiamoebic Activities of Selected Plants from Albaha Area, Saudi Arabia
The study aimed at evaluating phytochemical components, antibacterial, antifungal, antigiardial and antiamoebic activities of methanol extract from Bidens biternata, Silybum marianum, Osteospermum vaillantii, Achyranthes...