Utilization of Emergency Care – A Retrospective Study at the University of Szeged, Hungary

Aims: In Hungary, there are limited data available on the demographic data and disease characteristics of patients requiring emergency care. The aim of this study was to explore disease distribution by age and sex of inpatient casualty admissions in Hungary.

Study Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM), University of Szeged, from June 2014 to June 2015.

Methods: Data were retrieved from the hospital’s information system. Altogether the data of 2344 adult inpatients were involved into our analysis. Patients’ data were analyzed without the possibility of identification. The study protocol was approved by the Medical Research Council, Scientific and Research Committee of Hungary (No. 578/2014).

Results: The number of female patients (54%) exceeded the number of male (46%) patients. The mean age was 64.06 years (range: 20–103 years); the largest proportion of the sample (42.8%) came from the “above 70 years” age group. The most frequent conditions of admission were non-specific chest pain (18.2%), hypertensive crisis (7.9%), alcohol abuse (6.6%), pain in the lower abdomen (5.0%), and syncope (4.5%). 12.8% of the patients were transferred to other health care units; the leading causes were decrease in body fluids (11.7%) and septicemia (7.3%). Complications occurred in 6.0% of the patients; anemia (5.7%) and volume depletion (5.7%) occurred most frequently.

Conclusion: The majority of the patients presenting to the DEM in Szeged, Hungary were mainly elderly women and the most frequent causes of the admission were diseases of the circulatory system.