ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To find the sociodemographic characteristics of patients registered at a Health Centre (HC) who attended a hospital Casualty Department, their reasons for attendance, features of their use of facilities and how justified their attendance was. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Urban Health Centre, Llefià (Badalona), between February and June, 1995. PARTICIPANTS: We used a questionnaire composed by the research team to survey 360 patients over 14 who attended the HC with a report from a Casualty Department. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The variables recorded were: sociodemographic characteristics, reasons for attending Casualty, whether they attended on their own initiative, whether they knew about non-hospital Emergencies, the hospital, day and time, chronic pathology, diagnosis and destination on discharge from Casualty, length of stay and justification. 53.7% were women. 57.8% were married. 95% lived with a partner or intimate family member, 56.9% had completed primary education and 39.4% had jobs. 41% suffered a chronic pathology. Monday was the busiest day and physical trauma was the most frequent diagnosis on discharge. We considered 54.7% of all the consultations non-justified emergencies. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high percentage of users who attend Casualty on their own initiative. Most of the emergencies are unjustified.
