Distribution of Patients Referred From the Emergency Department to the Otolaryngology Clinic

Abstract

Objective: Emergency departments (EDs) are overcrowded with patients having ear, nose, and throat (ENT) complaints. A large proportion of patients are not true emergencies. Therefore, understanding patient demographics and referral patterns are important to reduce the number of ED visits. Understanding these will highlight the areas for the improvement of care, cost effectiveness, and education. Methods: Patients who were referred to the adult ED and consulted the ENT clinic between January 2016 and February 2017 were reviewed retrospectively. Age, gender, and diagnosis made at that time were analyzed. Results: A total of 10, 110 patients were admitted to the adult ED and referred to the ENT clinic. Of those, 5,919 (58%) were men and 4,217 (42%) women, with an average age of 44.9 (range, 18–90 years). The most common three diagnoses made during the study period were (in the descending order): epistaxis (n=3,101; 31%), nasal fractures (n=1,620; 16%), and nasal foreign bodies (n=927; 9%). Conclusion: Learning about the most common referral diagnosis made for ENT patients in the ED will enable institutions to find new ways to decrease the number of ED referrals and to conduct non-urgent cases to ENT outpatient clinics. Also, the education process of health employees will be more efficient. Thus, the quality of health care will increase, and costs will decrease.

Keywords

• emergency department
• emergency ent referrals; patient distribution.