Abstract

OSPITALECHE, Mariangel et al. Utilización de la Unidad de Observación de un Departamento de Emergencia Pediátrica. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2011, vol.82, n.4, pp.216-222. ISSN 1688-1249.

Introduction: the Observation Unit (OU) of a DEP allows the evaluation and treatment of patients who require a time (under 24hs) to decide their destiny. OUs have avoided unnecessary admissions, reduced costs and diminished law suits. The objective was to evaluate the use of an OU in a pediatric hospital, and identify the most frequent pathologies and predictors of hospital admission. Methodology: a descriptive and prospective study was carried out, including patients admitted into the OU in the period between 01/04/2010 and 31/03/2011. Analyzed variables where: age, sex, origin, duration of stay, destination, utilized resources. Statistical analysis: Epi Info version 3.5.1. Results and discussion: 49.749 patients were consulted in the DEP, of which 9.4% were admitted to the OU. The C age was 4 years 7months (3 days - 19 years), P50 3 years. 53.9% were boys. 74.7% came from the capital. The C stay in the OU was 7h 48’ (P50 7 hours). Destination: outpatients 54.3%, admission to hospital 42.8 %, Reanimation Unit 1.2%, ICU 1.2%, escape 0.5%. Diagnosis: injury 22.2%, convulsions 15.2%, bronchiolitis 7.4%, pneumonia 7.1%, fever with no focal point 5.6%, intoxications 5.4%, among others. Utilized resources were: oxygen (16.1%), specialists (25.3%), images (47.9%), intravenous drugs (36.2%). Hospital admissions according to diagnosis: polytraumatisms 17.0%, ECT 8.6%, convulsions 24.9%, bronchiolitis 65.4%, pneumonia 76.2%, asthma 64.8%. Conclusion: the use of the OU is not proving to be ideal. The admission of respiratory patients turned out to be very high, thus performance was low in this group. However the OU performance was clearly better in trauma and convulsions. 

Keywords : EMERGENCY SERVICE; HOSPITAL UNITS; HOSPITALS, PEDIATRIC; HOSPITALIZATION; RESIDENCE TIME .

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