Determination of factors affecting the children's emergency service density

Objectives: The number of patients applying the emergency units has been constantly increasing and overcrowding in emergency departments is a concerning global problem and has been identified as a national crisis in some countries. Many hospitals especially in the urban areas operate above their capacity because of the increasing rate of emergency department (ED) visits. The non-urgent applicants, the ineffective use of primary health care services, and the blockage caused by patients waiting for emergency services are just a few of the reasons for this crisis. The aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting the intensity of pediatric emergency services. Materials and Methods: Our study is a prospective, cross-sectional descriptive clinical study. The study included 2049 patients admitted to the pediatric emergency department for three months. A questionnaire was applied to the and their relatives in order to determine the causes of pediatric emergency service intensity and the relationship with the admission time. Patients were divided into three groups according to the application time (Group 1; 08.00-16.00, Group 2; 16.00-24.00 and Group 3; 00.00-08.00). The questionnaire included demographic characteristics of the patients and parents, how they applied to the CAA, the complaints and diagnosis of the patient, the time to start their complaints, the tests requested from the patient, whether the patient was prescribed or not, the patient was admitted to the inpatient services, the child was admitted to the emergency department and the application time was questioned. SPSS for Windows 24.0 program was used for statistical analysis. Descriptive statistical methods (Percent, Average, Standard deviation) when evaluating study data; Pearson Chi-Square test and One way Anova test were used. Results: 641 patients in Group 1, 717 patients in Group 2 and 691 patients in Group 3 were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 61.9 ± 53.2 months, 48.2% were female and 51.8% were male. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of address information of the patients, mother and father's profession, working hours of mother, the way of referral to pediatric emergency department, urogenital system diagnoses, complete urinalysis and ultrasound prompts and time of application (p< 0.05). Conclusion: In our data, 84.1% of the cases preferred ÇAS as the first place of application. The majority of patients are admitted to the 3rd emergency pediatric emergency department directly and this leads to excessive patient density. We evaluate that inappropriate AS applications can be reduced by the trainings to be given in primary health care services and thus, the intensity of pediatric emergency services can be reduced. Key words: Pediatric emergency service, intensity, demographic, complaint, diagnosis