Treatment of injuries in the county of Ringkøbing. 2. Function of the closed casualty department

The closed casualty department function in the County of Ringkøbing was investigated during a period of four weeks. It was demonstrated that this functioned according to plan as the distribution general practice/casualty department was 3.4:1 and 70% of the patients in the casualty department were re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inUgeskrift for læger Vol. 154; no. 44; p. 3037
Main Authors Hansen, T B, Kristensen, K A, Poulsen, M B, Gravers, M, Laursen, C N, Hansen, K R
Format Journal Article
LanguageDanish
Published Denmark 26.10.1992
Subjects
Denmark - epidemiology
Emergency Service, Hospital - organization & administration
Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Family Practice - organization & administration
Family Practice - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Referral and Consultation
Workload - statistics & numerical data
Wounds and Injuries - epidemiology
Wounds and Injuries - therapy
Denmark
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Summary:The closed casualty department function in the County of Ringkøbing was investigated during a period of four weeks. It was demonstrated that this functioned according to plan as the distribution general practice/casualty department was 3.4:1 and 70% of the patients in the casualty department were referred via general practice. The result of this was that the majority of minor injuries (removal of foreign bodies and treatment of wounds) were treated in general practice. In the casualty departments, there were fewer minor injuries and injuries which did not require specific treatment than are the case in open casualty departments. However, a definite diurnal variation was observed in the function of the closed casualty department as patients showed a greater tendency to seek treatment in the casualty department after working hours than during working hours and the general practitioners referred twice as many patients after working hours for continued treatment in the casualty departments. It is concluded that the closed casualty department system in the County of Ringkøbing functions well but that problems may be anticipated with the function if the duty-rosters for the general practitioners are altered so that the distances between general practitioners on duty increase and these have an increased work-load.
ISSN:0041-5782