Analysis of Cases Referred from A Tertiary University Hospital Emergency Service: The Case of Ordu Province

Abstract

Objective: University hospitals are health institutions that have sufficient and equipped personnel for diseases that require advanced examination and special treatment, contain high technology and/or have an infrastructure or are expected to provide education-research services. In some cases of medical necessity, patients can be transferred from tertiary hospitals to both the same level and lower level health institutions, and in some cases even to other centers outside the province where the patient is located. In this direction, it was aimed to retrospectively analyze the data of the cases referred to other centers from a tertiary hospital emergency department and to determine the deficiencies. Methods: Archive records of 133 cases who were referred to other health centers from Ordu University Medical Faculty Training and Research Hospital's emergency service between 01.06.2022 and 31.08.2022 were examined. The demographic characteristics of the cases, referral diagnoses, referral branches, reasons for referral, types of hospitals, the relationship between referral branches and the type of hospital referred were examined as the campuses of referral centers. Results: The most common reason for transferring the cases was the lack of an intensive care unit (57.1%), while the second most common reason was the absence of a patient service bed (23.3%). The most frequently referred patients were cardiology patients (20.3%) and the reason was not intensive care unit (88.9%), followed by chest diseases patients (19.5%) and no intensive care unit (61.5%). It was determined that 67% of cardiology patients were referred to a private hospital, 33% to a secondary level hospital, and 11.1% to another province. Conclusion: Tertiary hospitals are expected to be more equipped centers than other hospitals in terms of technical, personnel, patient service, intensive care and many other aspects. Only the quality of equipment and personnel is not sufficient in such centers. Patient bed and intensive care unit are very important factors that should not be ignored.