UTILIZATION OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT, UKM MEDICAL CENTRE: PATTERN OF PATIENT

An emergency department (ED) is a front door for a hospital where a huge number of patients visit the department to seek immediate treatment. This has led to ED overcrowding. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the pattern of patients attending the ED in a public teaching hospital in Malaysia. 2013 daily census data contained 66,603 patients were used. In this study, 62.1% of ED attendances are non-critical case. They commonly utilized the ED in the early morning, during weekends, and early part of the week. In conclusion, non-critical patients are seen to be the most frequent ED users. They are commonly present at the ED with minor problems. Hence, ED management should implement various solving methods in order to educate such people regarding the real functions of an ED.