Characteristics of Patients Visiting the Pediatric Emergency Department of a Medical Faculty Hospital

Aim: Emergency departments are among vital units of hospitals, providing non-stop care in all cases of emergency and injury. This study aimed to present various characteristics and distributions of the patients visiting the Pediatric Emergency Department of the Düzce University Medical Faculty within a specified period and, based on the data obtained, define an emergency service model with high performance, minimized labor loss, high service quality, and prioritized patient satisfaction. Materials and Methods: Records of a total of 116,172 patients admitted between 1.1.2012 and 31.12.2016 were electronically reviewed retrospectively. The records included information as to how many times the patients visited the emergency polyclinic in a single year, admission time and indication, type of the diagnosis and medical care received, and patient age, sex and socioeconomic characteristics. Results: We found that the number of the patients visiting the Pediatric Emergency Department in the years 2012 to 2016 was 11,336 (9.75%), 15,453 (13.3%), 23,944 (20.6%), 28,695 (24.7%) and 36,744 (31.6%), respectively, and that there was a significant increase in the visiting patient number over the years. Discussion and Conclusion: Creating a database by determining the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients visiting pediatric emergency services is crucial for the work and future planning for these services