ABSTRACT

Objective:

In this study, it was aimed to determine the demographic characteristics of the patients brought to the pediatric emergency department of a tertiary educational research hospital by 112 ambulance and to determine whether the necessary interventions and treatments were performed in the ambulance.

Materials and Methods:

The patients the patients between the ages of 0 to 18 and who were brought to the pediatric emergency services by 112 ambulance between 01 November 2011 and 30 November 2013 included in this retrospective study. The patients were evaluated by examining 112 ambulance patient transport forms and hospital information system records. The gender of the patients, the date and time of the emergency service admission, the duration spent in the hospital after the incident, the place where the case was taken, the reason for the arrival, whether giving information to related services about the case if the patient was referred, the completeness of ambulance case registration form, admitted treatment, status of intubation, preliminary diagnoses, diagnosis of emergency department, if there is consultation requested department, emergency service end-of status, clinical diagnosis and placement of hospitalized patients were evaluated.

Results:

A total of 7425 patients were included in the study. Of 55.7% the patients were male and 44.3% were female. It was determined that most of the patients were taken from the place of incident (45.7%), between 08: 00-17: 00 hours (44.4%), 85.3% of admission in reason of diagnosis and treatment, and 1.6% of them for emergency consultation. It was determined that vascular access established 87.2%, vital signs collected 90.2%, pulse oximetry applied 91.3% and treatment started in ambulance 67.7%of the patients. It was found that the most common diagnosis was trauma (34.1%) and 90.4% of all trauma patients were discharged with minor trauma diagnosis. Patients were the most frequently consultated in the pediatric surgery department and hospitalized in podiatry departments (61.2%). It was found that 84.5% of the patients were discharged from the emergency department, 15% of them were hospitalized and 0.1% of them were died.

Conclusion:

The most common cause of admission was trauma. The necessary medical interventions were carried out during the transportation of the patients with ambulance. However, it can be said that ambulance personnel should be more careful about triage when considering the frequency of high discharge rates.