Objective:

Admission time of patients to emergency department (ED) vary. In certain times patient density increases and may have negative effect on morbidity and mortality of the patients. The aim of this study is to investigate the distribution of trauma characteristics and outcomes of the patients admitted to the ED with respect to elements of time.

Material and Methods:

This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study, which includes all the trauma patients admitted to an ED at eastern Turkey between January 2006 and December 2007.

Results:

The daily average of the total patients per physician was about 230. There were 6185 trauma patients analyzed. The number of patients and the percents of injured body regions per month increased towards summer. The highest percent was 31.9 for head-neck injury in August. The daily distribution of strike (68%) and motor vehicle injury (25.5%) were high in Thursday and Friday respectively. Only thoracodorsal injury (9.2%) in Sunday was significantly high. Frequencies of outcomes did not show difference in days. Number of admissions were low between 5:00-7:59 (≤1.3%) and increased from 08:00 onwards, peaked at 17 (8.6%), and decreased again at later hours of the day. The distribution of trauma mechanisms followed a similar trend. The percents of hospitalized and transferred patients were found to be significantly low between 00:00-06:59. However, distribution of mortality was regular. However 42.6% of the mortalities occurred between 13:00-18:59.

Conclusion:

There is high patient load in the ED. It is highest in summer and also in the afternoon and evening. Furthermore the transfers and the hospitalizations are remarkably high in these times. The ED needs to be supported with all types of personnel and technical equipment at the times indicated above.

Keywords: Injuries, hospital emergency services, patient admission, time factors