Audit of Medical Admissions at a Rural South African Primary Care Hospital Between 2012 and 2016

Abstract

Background: Contemporary audits of medical admissions to South African (SA) primary care hospitals are rare. We sought to address this paucity in the literature. Methods: This was a retrospective audit of data for 17693 adult medical admissions collected as part of the Hlabisa Hospital administrative database between 01 January 2012 and 31 December 2016. The overall distribution of admissions, characteristics (age, gender, HIV status, Infectious disease–ID, and route of admission), length of stay (LoS), and mortality during the audit was analyzed using crude/univariate statistical methods (Descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests, and Mann-Whitney tests). Trends in admissions, median LoS, and mortality were analyzed through simple regression and trend line analysis. Results: Our most important finding was a moderate trend towards a decline in ID admissions (Trend line slope = -0.2295, R2 =0.6034; p<0.001). Conclusion: Our finding is indicative of the impact of antiretroviral therapy and the epidemiological transition in SA.

Keywords

• Trends
• Medical admissions
• Primary care
• South Africa