Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology (한국응용과학기술학회지)

The Korean Society of Applied Science and Technology (한국응용과학기술학회)
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Usage Patterns and Severity Classification of Elderly Patients in a Public Hospital Emergency Department

  • Yon-Hee, Seo (Dept. of Nursing, Andong National University) ;
  • Sun-Og, Lim (Dept. of Nursing, Shinsung University)
  • Received : 2024.05.23
  • Accepted : 2024.06.27
  • Published : 2024.06.30
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Abstract

This study aims to enhance the accuracy of severity classification by examining the usage patterns and characteristics of emergency department visits. It focuses on adult and elderly patients who visited a public hospital in Seoul. This descriptive study retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of patients who visited the emergency department of a public hospital between November and December 2023. The total number of participants was 1,033, with 46.4% (n=479) being elderly and 53.6% (n=554) being adults. The chief complaints of the participants were as follows: for the elderly, nervous system symptoms at 8.2% (n=85) and digestive symptoms at 7.5% (n=77) were the most common, while for adults, gastrointestinal symptoms at 11.0% (n=114) and trauma at 8.6% (n=89) were more prevalent. In the case of the elderly, patients classified as urgent accounted for the highest percentage at 23.9% (n=247), while for adults, non-emergency were more prevalent at 32.2% (n=333). The initial severity classification error rate for elderly patients in the urgent was 3.8%, indicating that the suitability of KTAS for elderly patients with high severity was low. To minimize severity classification errors and enhance KTAS accuracy, it's essential to address its current limitation of only classifying adults and children separately by developing a KTAS classification system that reflects the diverse characteristics of elderly patients.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. RS-2022-00166800).

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