Analysis of adult emergency department patients after the february 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake

Objective: In our study, we aimed to provide data for emergency health care planning in any university based hospitals' tertiary emergency department in case of disaster which can be used in planning for the management of non-trauma patients besides trauma patients indisaster preparedness. We compared data of non-trauma patients who received medical care in Balcalı hospital after the earthquake that occurred in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023 with the patients who received medical care in the same period of the previous year. Materials and methods: Our retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in the adult emergency department of Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine Hospital. In the same 15-day time period, demographic and clinical characteristics of non-trauma patients admitted to the Emergency Department in 2023 and 2022 were compared and analyzed with SPSS 27.0 (Released 2020) statistical package program. Results: The meanage of the patients included in the study was 47.45±18.87 years in 2022 and 46.81±18.67 years in 2023. The number of female patients admitted in 2022 was 1374 (53.6%) and 1096 (51.8%) in 2023. In 2022, the highest number of patient admissions occurred on the 13th day (191) and on the 8th day (170) in 2023. The rate of ambulance admissions was 16.9% in 2022 and 22.3% in 2023. The most common reason for admission was respiratory complaints in both years and respiratory, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases and poisonings were more in 2023 (p=0.001). The majority of the patients were followed up in the gren area (56% in 2022 and 57.6% in 2023, p=0.001) where the finalized patients in the first 6 hour was 99.4 % in the green area, 88.05% in the yellow area and 63.44% in the red area in 2022, and 99.51% in the gren area, 90.37% in the yellow area and 65.77% in the red area in 2023. Coronary angiography was performed in 13 patients among 30 with chest pain in 2022 where this number was 49/53 in 2023 (p=0.001). Nine patients (0.4%) deceased in 2022 and 21 (0.9%) in 2023 (p=0.001). The number of ordered X-rays was 815 (31.8%) in 2022 and 559 (26.4%) in 2023 where tomography requests was 512 (20.0%) in 2022 and 294 (13.9%) in 2023 (p=0.001). Conclusion: Our study results reveals that, the management of the patients was different although their characteristics were similar. Due to the high emergency department applies during the disaster period and when fast-track is important, ensuring the continuation of routine health care and defining separate for trauma and non-trauma emergencies might reduce the burden of the emergency department and the hospital and increase the quality of patient care. Keywords: Emergency Department, patient management, triage, disaster, earthquake, non-traumatic patients