Abstract

Background: Emergency Departments (ED) are becoming one of the most overcrowded departments globally. This study aims to investigate the frequency and causes of unscheduled patient return to the ED in King Fahad Specialist Hospital in Dammam (KFSH-D) within 72 hours of discharge.
Method: This study is a cross-sectional retrospective study done between February and May, of 2023 at KFSH-D, Saudi Arabia. A total of 295 patients where included. Patients were selected using a simple random sampling technique. Medical record numbers (MRNs) of patients with unscheduled return visits within 72 hours were gathered from the hospital’s electronic medical record-integrated database (Medica Cloudcare) which were then entered on a random number generator. 295 MRNs were selected and included in the study. This study includes male and female patients older than 16 years who returned to the ED within 72 hours.
Results: Results showed cancer as the most common comorbidity resulting in revisits within 72 hours. Regarding the emergency department triage category, category 3 was the most common category in revisiting patients (70.2%). Pain was the most common chief complain in the initial and second visit to emergency department, 61.0% and 61.4%, respectively. Most of the patients return due to patient-related causes, specifically no improvement (75.3%).
Conclusion: The quality of patient care is negatively affected by the increasing patient demand. Although not much can be done for first visit patients, some simple actions could be done to reduce the rate of second visits.

Key words: Emergency department, revisits, unscheduled return visits, overcrowding.