Clinical analysis of 5471 cases in a pediatric emergency observation unit / 中国小儿急救医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the role of an emergency observation unit(OU) in pediatric care.Methods A retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the medical service of the OU for 12 months.Results During 12 months,5?471 children were admitted to the OU,which was 0.78% of all visits to the outpatient department(OD) and emergency department(ED).Of OU patients,70.9% children were discharged home and 34.6% children were discharged under 48 hours.Of OU patients,65.6% children were under 2 years old.Median length of stay was 95.7 hours.The average admission rate was 15 children per day.The patient volume per month of OU was in positive relation with the visits volume per month of OD and ED (r=0.835,P=0.001).The commonest causes for children admitted to the observation unit were pneumonia(22.2%),enteritis(13.3%) and acute upper airway infection(11.4%).Conclusion The emergency pediatric OU should be set to assess and treat young children with a variety of conditions.It is effective in relieving the problems of limited inpatient hospital bed spaces and high-volume patient visits,and helpful for limiting inappropriate hospitalization.