Characteristics of Emergency Services for the Elderly—A Regional Hospital Example

Abstract

Background: In Taiwan, the study of emergency medical services for elderly patients is inadequate. Although in recent years there has been more discussion of emergency care, there has been no comprehensive review. In other countries, elderly services have been examined for some years now, but the situation is different in Taiwan. Therefore, this study was performed in a district teaching hospital in Hsinchu County, and the emergency medical treatment of patients aged older than 65 years and its impact were analyzed. Methods: In this study, we used retrospective data from a hospital in Hsinchu City between January and December 2008. We selected 9,692 patients aged older than 65 years and excluded missing data. Results: The elderly patients' emergency condition, symptoms and diagnoses were found to be uncertain. As they tended to be triage levels 2–3, which is very serious, it meant that the elderly patient's status was complicated and emergency medical personnel often could not quickly judge what constituted appropriate treatment within a short time. Conclusion: This study's primary goal was to investigate the most common clinical signs and symptoms of the various diseases most common in elderly patients, who presented to the emergency service, and the care of these patients in Hsinchu County to facilitate a more efficient and useful emergency medical service.

Keywords

• aged
• delivery of health care
• diagnosis
• emergency medical services