A Review of a Calendar Year of Emergency Medical Admission into a Tertiary Hospital in a Semi-Urban Town in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

The provision of a medical Emergency Department (ED) is an important component of a tertiary hospital, since most serious medical  cases access hospital services through this pathway. However, there is a dearth of detailed information about the medical disease  burden, admitted through the ED in our locality, whereas this information is highly needed in planning and policy formulation with  regards to delivering optimal emergency medical care. Thus, this study aimed to determine the disease burden, distribution and  outcomes for medical cases admitted to the ED. The study is a one-year retrospective review of the medical admissions to the ED of a  tertiary hospital. The data required were obtained from patients’ and hospital medical records, which were analyzed using IBM/SPSS  Version 23 package. A total of 787 medical patients were admitted to the Emergency department during the study period. There were 415  (52.7%) male and 372 (47.3%) female patients. The age range of the patients was 18-95 years, with a mean of 50.51 ± 17.97 years. The  leading causes of admissions were stroke, complications of diabetes mellitus, and heart failure with a combined total of 206 patients  (26.0%). Non-communicable diseases (NCD) formed a significant majority of the admissions (56.8%), with cardiovascular disorders the  leading cause of NCDs (29.3%). Sepsis was the major cause of infectious diseases with 50 patients making up approximately 6% of the  total admitted cases. The commonest causes of death were NCDs, with 39 (61.53%) deaths; amongst which diabetic complications  accounted for the greatest number with 6 patients (15.38%). Severe sepsis was a major cause of death due to communicable disease with  5 patients (12.82%). The study showed that NCDs constituted a significant majority of admissions. Efforts geared towards reducing  NCDs and improvement of the hospital infrastructure for optimal management in the ED is necessary for improved outcomes.