Non-urgent patients in an Emergency Medical Service.

BACKGROUND Emergency Medical Services (ES) are medical-surgical facilities where extremely ill patients, victims of accidents, intoxications and other urgent clinical situations should be rapidly and efficiently attended. However, a worldwide experience is that a large proportion of patients who require attention in an ES do not qualify as emergencies and they obstruct the possibilities of other patients that should be attended immediately. AIM To evaluate the medical records in our ES and to assess whether patients understand what is a true emergency and which is the role of an ES. METHODS Patients attended in the ES of Haydarpasa Military Teaching Hospital in 2001-2002 were classified according to their diagnosis. A random sample of patients and relatives were surveyed about why they required medical attention in the ES. RESULTS 77,134 patients (39,327 female, 51%) were attended. The most common illness diagnosed was upper respiratory tract infection (18,423 patients, 23.9%). The true emergency condition rate in patients presenting to our ES was lower (44%) than the non-emergency condition rate. CONCLUSIONS Improvements in public education are needed to solve this problem. Also, Primary Care facilities should be improved in order to reduce the demand for medical attention in ES by non-urgent patients.