Abstract

While some of the patients admitted to emergency departments (ED) are treated and discharged, others are transferred to inpatient services. The follow-up of these transferred patients is mostly based on their hospitalization diagnosis. It is important that the hospitalization diagnosis is accurate and reliable. We aimed to examine whether there is a difference between the diagnosis of admission in the emergency department and the diagnosis used at discharge from the hospital during one week. After excluding patients who were admitted without being evaluated in the emergency department and patients with missing data, a total of 544 patients were included. It was observed that most admissions were made to the internal medicine unit (n=118). When it was analyzed whether the diagnosis changed, it was observed that 90.6% of the patients maintained the same diagnosis after discharge. When the tests that led to a change in diagnosis were analyzed, it was found that CT and MRI played the most important role. Although the tests performed led to a change in the hospitalization diagnosis, only 33% of the patients had a change in the hospitalization episode. This is an important point and emphasizes the importance of ensuring accurate and precise diagnoses and admissions from emergency departments. In conclusion, these findings point to the need for improvements in the diagnostic and treatment processes of patients transferred from the ED to the wards. In this way, it will be possible to improve the clinical outcomes of patients and ensure efficient use of resources.

Key words: Diagnosis, emergency department, patient discharge