fACTORS RELATED TO PATIENT READMISSIONS AT THE emergenc y service

Abstract

The high demand for attendance in Emergency Department and the resultant length of stay for the patients in repeated admissions have become hard to nurses responsible for the administration of this units deal with the situation. Transversal and descriptive study made at Emergency Department of a teaching hospital in São Paulo city whose objectives were to identify the social-demographic and morbidly profile of the readmitted patients and the factors associated with readmissions. The sample was constituted by patients over fourteen years old that became inpatient at the Emergency Department, with over than one admission until six months before the data collection during May 2004. The readmission incidence was 23.3%, the patients were predominantly males (61.9%), had 40 to 90 years old (85,9%) and low level education (57.8%). Most of patients (57.6%) were readmitted with the same diagnosis and 23.9% due to complications. It was conclude that the high readmission incidence can be attributed to the evolution of the chronic disease, advanced age, surgical complications, notresolution of the last health problem and non-adherence to the orientations. The findings suggest the need to invest on improvement of the attendance quality, with more nurse performance on direct assistance to patient
on the Emergency Department, and continuity of the care at home.