The Profile of Pediatric Patients Visit Emergency Department at Urban University Hospital in Thailand
Uthen Pandee MD*, Sakda Arj-ong Vallipakorn MD, PhD**, Adisak Plitponkarnpim MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Pediatrics, Ramathibodi Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand ** Section for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Background : There is an absence of data describing pediatric patients who visit Emergency Department (ED) in Thailand.
Therefore, this report creates a profile of pediatric emergency room visit at a university hospital in Thailand.
Material and Method: The retrospective data of the pediatric patient aged less than 15 years that visited ED at Ramathibodi
Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand between fiscal year (FY) 2002 and 2011 were reviewed. The Electronic
Medical Record Tracking was extracted. Demographic characteristic, acuity level, timing, and presumptive diagnosis were
reviewed.
Results : During the 10 years of the data collection, 122,037 pediatric patient visited ED, thus, approximately 12,000 visits
per year. Pediatric patients account for an average of 18% of hospital patients. Medical condition accounted for 95.21%
of the visits followed by trauma at 4.77%, and death at 0.02%. The triage categorized patients into critical, emergency,
urgency, and non-emergency, consisting of 0.6% as critical patients, 37.6% as emergency patients, 52.5% as acute illness,
and 9.3% as non-emergency patients. The three most common diagnosis were upper respiratory tract infection, acute febrile
illness, and acute gastroenteritis. Patient usually visited ED in the evening shift 44% (4 p.m. to midnight), followed by
morning shift 40% (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and overnight shift 16% (midnight to 8 a.m.). There were two highest peaks of ED
visit, in June, during the rainy season, and in January, during the winter.
Conclusion : Pediatric patients attending the emergency service were mostly for medical conditions. Acute illnesses were
the major group of pediatric patients. A small proportion of visits in ED were true emergencies.
Keywords : Pediatric emergency, Emergency service, Emergency medicine, EMSC, EDIS
