Revisits of Older Patients to the Emergency Department within 72 Hours

Abstract

Aim: There isn’t enough data in the literature regarding the revisits of geriatric patients to the emergency department (ED) within three days. This study was aimed to determine the characteristics of these patients and to determine the results of 90-day mortality.Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was carried out in a secondary care emergency department of a state hospital on January 2018. The patient population was 65 years old and over. The first presentation records of revisited patients and the second revisit records within 72 hours were noted.Results: During the study period, 1422 geriatric patients presented to the ED and 85 (6%) of them had ED revisit within 72 hours. Of all revisited patients, 54.1% were female and the median age was 74 (IQR 70-80). The rate of similar compliants for revisits was 77.6% (n=66). Although the 90-day mortality rate of patients with different diagnoses was higher than that with the same diagnoses, the difference was not statistically significant (26.3% and 13.6%, respectively). Of all revisited patients, mortality was observed in 16.5% (n=14) within 90 days.Conclusion: Geriatric revisit rate within 72 hours was slightly higher when compared with those in the literature. Revisit rate with the similar diagnoses was quite high. Approx-imately one in six patients in the study had mortality within 90 days.

Keywords

• geriatric
• emergency department
• revisit
• geriatri
• acil servis
• tekrar başvurular