The Profile of Pediatric Patients Visit Emergency Department at Urban University Hospital in Thailand

Abstract

Background: There is an absence of data describing pediatric patients who visit Emergency Department (ED) in Thailand. Therefore, this report creates a profile of pediatric emergency room visit at a university hospital in Thailand.

Material and method: The retrospective data of the pediatric patient aged less than 15 years that visited ED at Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand between fiscal year (FY) 2002 and 2011 were reviewed. The Electronic Medical Record Tracking was extracted. Demographic characteristic, acuity level, timing, and presumptive diagnosis were reviewed.

Results: During the 10 years of the data collection, 122,037 pediatric patient visited ED, thus, approximately 12,000 visits per year Pediatric patients account for an average of 18% of hospital patients. Medical condition accounted for 95.21% of the visits followed by trauma at 4.77%, and death at 0.02%. The triage categorized patients into critical, emergency, urgency, and non-emergency, consisting of 0.6% as critical patients, 37.6% as emergency patients, 52.5% as acute illness, and 9.3% as non-emergency patients. The three most common diagnosis were upper respiratory tract infection, acute febrile illness, and acute gastroenteritis. Patient usually visited ED in the evening shift 44% (4 p.m. to midnight), followed by morning shift 40% (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and overnight shift 16% (midnight to 8 a.m.). There were two highest peaks of ED visit, in June, during the rainy season, and in January, during the winter.

Conclusion: Pediatric patients attending the emergency service were mostly for medical conditions. Acute illnesses were the major group ofpediatric patients. A small proportion of visits in ED were true emergencies.