Paediatric emergency department visits for non-urgent conditions : Can family medicine prevent this?

BACKGROUND: In Turkey, family physicians serve only during office hours, while emergency services have 7/24 free access. Non-urgent patients commonly use Paediatric Emergency departments (PEDs). In Turkey, there is little evidence as to why emergency services are used instead of family medicine for non-urgent paediatric healthcare.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the causes and factors affecting non-urgent PED visits. To determine the reason for non-use of family medicine for non-urgent paediatric healthcare.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study at Gaziantep University PED between April and May 2019. We administered a questionnaire to the parents of children (from one month to 16 years) triaged to non-urgent (level-5) using a 5-level triage system.

RESULTS: A total of 457 parents were surveyed. The average patient age was 6.5 ± 4.7 years and 24.5% had a chronic disease. One-third of the parents (33.7%) considered their children's condition 'very urgent'. The most important reason for preferring PED (42.5%) instead of family physician or alternative health facilities was the thought that the condition of children would worsen. Two hundred fifty-three (55.4%) of the patients presented outside working hours. Although 58.9% of parents were satisfied with the family physician, most (67.8%) stated that they preferred other specialists rather than family physicians when the child had health problems. Fathers who were primary school graduates were more likely to prefer other specialists than family physicians.

CONCLUSION: Parents' perception of urgency and the thought that their child's condition will worsen are the main reasons for non-urgent using PED.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:26

Enthalten in:

The European journal of general practice - 26(2020), 1 vom: 08. Dez., Seite 134-139

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Akbayram, Hatice Tuba [VerfasserIn]
Coskun, Enes [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Family physician
Journal Article
Non-urgent
Paediatric emergency department
Primary care

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 03.09.2021

Date Revised 03.09.2021

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1080/13814788.2020.1825676

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM31596006X