Key result
Admission to a pediatric observation unit resulted in 85.2% of patients staying less than 24 hours and 30.1% requiring subsequent inpatient admission, demonstrating its utility for short-term care.
Observational (n=7,007)
No
Pediatric observation units play a significant role in managing children with various acute conditions and provide short-term care for overflow inpatients.
May support pediatric observation units for short-term care; hypothesis-generating and requires randomized validation before practice change.
Objective: A pediatric observation unit may help to alleviate some of the stress caused by an increased number of patients. The aim of this study is to identify the intended functions as well as the clinical and operating characteristics of our observation unit, which is an alternative and important option to our inpatient and emergency services. Material and Methods: The hospital records of children aged between 0 months and 18 years who were admitted to our observation unit between January 2014 and December 2014 were reviewed. The patients' demographic and clinical characteristics, diagnosis at admission, the number of patients admitted to wards, the percentage of patients referred to other hospitals, and the length of observation were analyzed. Results: A total of 115.729 patients admitted to the emergency department in a year. Of these patients, 121 (0.10%) were admitted to a ward appropriate for their age and disease, while 7007 (6.05%) were admitted to the observation unit. Of the patients monitored in the observation unit, 2110 (30.11%) were eventually admitted to clinics appropriate for their age. 1559 (26.85%) of patients admitted to the observation unit had gastrointestinal system diseases; 1270 (18.12%) had nervous system diseases; 1265 (18.05%) had respiratory system diseases; and 1137 (16.24%) had infectious diseases. We found that 5970 of 7007 (85.20%) patients admitted to the observation unit stayed less than 24 hours, and 1037 (14.79%) patients stayed more than 24 hours. The mean length of stay for all patients admitted to the observation unit was 13 hours, 28 minutes (1,40 ± 34,4). Conclusion: Our observation unit has an important role in assessing and managing children with a variety of diseases. Also; our observation unit functions as a holding unit to provide short term care of overflow inpatients.
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Berksoy et al. (2017) conducted an observational in Pediatric emergencies requiring observation (n=7,007). Pediatric observation unit care was evaluated on Length of stay and disposition from the observation unit. Admission to a pediatric observation unit resulted in 85.2% of patients staying less than 24 hours and 30.1% requiring subsequent inpatient admission, demonstrating its utility for short-term care.
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