Over utilization of the accident-emergency and X-ray departments in AL- Ain hospital, United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT

The extent of inappropriate utilisation of the Accident and Emergency Department [AED] and the X-ray Department in the Al-Ain Hospital, United Arab Emirates [UAE] was investigated by doing a prospective study using a standardised questionnaire to assess the utilization of the AED and X-ray departments between a period from 25th November 1993 to 3rd May1994. The survey was based on the systematic sampling procedure 1 in 3, in which every third patient is selected. Two thousand eight hundred and thirty six patients were available. Overall, about 406 cases [14.3%] were thought to be appropriate or serious enough to warrant attendance at the AED. Nationality and occupation did not have significant effect on the proportion of patients who attended the AED. There were very statistically significant differences in the numbers attending the AED with regards to age, and marital status. The most common conditions were respiratory [14.4%], and trauma, fractures and road traffic accidents a [13.2%], while the least common was poisoning [1.6%]. The study showed that 56.6% of X-rays requested were not for acceptable indications. A high proportion of the AED users were classified as non urgent cases and led to an "inappropriate" level of utilisation of the service