Authors: Shahad M. Al-Ashgar , Mohammed K. Almolhis , Omar W. Aldhasee , Rama A. Alraheili

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine factors predicting hospital admissions at King Abdulaziz Medical City in the emergency department (ED), Rdiyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at the ED of King Abdulaziz Medical City among adult patients aged ≥14 years triaged in ED and arriving by either paramedic transport or self-referral and presented to ED from 01/01/2021 to 01/01/2022. The data were collected from the patient's medical records and a pre-designed checklist was prepared to collect data. Results: The majority of patients (88.7%) arrived at the ED walk-ins, as for patient acuity, a substantial segment of the population (86.9%) fell into category 3. Exactly half of the patients reported no known comorbidities. The prior visit to the ED within the past 72 hours was documented in 12.3% of the cases. As for the patients' outcomes post-triage, a large proportion (78.4%) were discharged after their ED visit. The majority of emergency visits were associated with no complications (92.5%), while morbidity was reported among 4.2% and mortality among 3.4% of the visits. The rate of hospital admission was significantly higher among patients aged 25-34 years and 55-64 years, who arrived walk-in, who had patient acuity category "3" and who had no previous ED Visit

Keywords: Predicting, early hospital admissions, emergency department, patients, time of triage