Determination of the use of primary healt hservices of patients registering to Tekirdag Namık Kemal University emergency department health services

The most important reason for the intensiveness of the emergency services in our country is the non-emergency patients who apply to the emergency department for various reasons. Inappropriate use of emergency services can generally be defined as "the use of emergency services for health problems that develop without accident or injury, do not need emergency services and can be treated in primary care". While some patients do not apply to any healthcare service even with severe symptoms, some prefer secondary and tertiary healthcare services and emergency services for mild symptoms. This leads to inappropriate use of health services. Family physicians, who are at the center of primary health care, have important duties in reducing the reasons and frequency of admission to emergency services. Our study was carried out in order to question the use of 250 primary health care services applied between 01.11.2021 and 01.04.2022 in Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Emergency Service green area. The most frequent complaints were that 189 patients (75.6%) did not go to the family doctor before applying to the emergency department, 143 (57.2%) wanted to apply to the family doctor outside of working hours, 217 (86.8%) were satisfied with the family doctor. It was seen that the applicants were admitted due to upper respiratory tract disease (24.4%). We determined that those who knew family physicians were predominantly in the >40 age group, and those who applied to the family physician more frequently were women. It was observed that as the education level increased, the rate of going to the family doctor before the emergency decreased. We see similar results in the literature review. 34 people (55.8%) who went to the family doctor before the emergency went to the emergency department because their family doctor recommended it, and 90 people (47.6%) who did not go to the family doctor for the emergency, preferred the emergency service because they felt that the situation was urgent. determined. As a result, we think that the green field applications in the emergency services can be reduced by education about the primary care services to be given to the patients, enlightening the patients about their current clinics, regulating their ability to provide services outside of working hours, increasing the trust in the primary care physician, and expanding the imaging and examinations in the primary care. Keywords: Primary Care, Emergency Department, Family Practice