Return to the Emergency Department within 48 Hours

Kim, Young Ju; Park, Yon Ok; Lee, Jae Man; Cho, Joon Pil; Lee, Il Yung

Journal of Korean Society Quality Assurance Health Care 1999;6(Suppl DB Error: no such field): 38.
Published online May 30, 1999.

48시간 이내 응급실 재방문에 대한 분석 - 일개 종합병원을 대상으로 -

김영주¹, 박연옥¹, 이재만², 조준필², 이일영³

¹아주대학교의료원 QI팀
²아주대학교의료원 응급의학과
³아주대학교의료원 QI실

Return to the Emergency Department within 48 Hours

Young Ju Kim¹, Yon Ok Park¹, Jae Man Lee², Joon Pil Cho², Il Yung Lee³

¹QI Team, Ajou University Medical Center
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Ajou University Medical Center
³QI Office, Ajou University Medical Center

Abstract

Background
To evaluate the frequency and cause of return to the emergency department within 48 hours and to identify the nature of the problem.
Methods
We reviewed the medical records of 76 patients who returned to the emregency department within 48 hours from September 1998 to February 1999.
Results
Overall revisit rate within 48hours was 2.6%. Of 76 patients, 5(6.6%) had planned return, 64(84.2%) had unplanned return and 7(9.2%) had incomplete documentation. The causes of unplanned return were inadequate medical management (11.8%), discharge against medical advice (27.6%), return after scheduled ambulatory care (22.4%), and unavoidable revisit due to symptom aggrevation or development of new symptom (22.4%).
Conclusion
The study provided a basic information for us to improve the quality of emergency care by reducing unnecessary return to the emergency department. It is necessary to monitor continuously the quality of emergency care and to develop the standard of emergency return rate.

Key words Return;Emergency;Quality Care;