Analysis of patients presenting to the emergency department at Ceza Hospital for period of 1 year (1st January to 31st December 2010)
Date
2013-03-19
Authors
Ogungbire, John Ayodeji Abiola
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Abstract
Patients present daily to the emergency department of Ceza hospital, Kwazulu
Natal for medical treatment. Some of these patients are self-referral or referred by
other health care workers. Analysis of demography of patients presenting to the
emergency department from 1st January to 31st December 2010 was conducted to
provide a general overview and characteristics of the studied population. It was a
retrospective, transverse and descriptive study that involved patients’ records
reviewed from a hospital register. The results showed that the commonest
primary diagnosis was assault with a patient population of 81 (16.9%) followed by
gastroenteritis (12.3%) and soft tissue injuries (8.5%) respectively. Most patients
were single (94.6%), black (100%) and mostly males (57.7%). The highest number
of the patient population seen at the emergency department was in February
(14.8%) and the patients seen were mostly in the age range of 21 to 30 years.
Most cases that presented to the emergency department were non-emergencies
that constituted 67.2% of the cases seen and the emergency cases were only
32.8%. The highest patient population at the emergency department of Ceza
hospital was 34.83% in summer with presentation peaking from 8.00 am until
11.59 am. The highest proportion of patients’ presentation was found to be during
the weekends.