Determining the common medical presenting problems to an accident and emergency department. Armon, K., Stephenson, T., Gabriel, V., MacFaul, R., Eccleston, P., Werneke, U., & Smith, S. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 84(5):390–392, May, 2001.
abstract   bibtex   
All accident and emergency (A&E) attendances over a one year period were prospectively studied in order to determine common medical presenting problems. Data were collected on children (0-15 years) attending a paediatric A&E department in Nottingham between February 1997 and February 1998. A total of 38 982 children were seen. The diagnoses of 26 756 (69%) were classified as trauma or surgical, and 10 369 (27%) as medical; 1857 (4%) could not be classified. The commonest presenting problems reported for "medical" children were breathing difficulty (31%), febrile illness (20%), diarrhoea with or without vomiting (16%), abdominal pain (6%), seizure (5%), and rash (5%). The most senior doctor seeing these patients in A&E was a senior house officer (intern or junior resident) in 78% of cases, paediatric registrar (senior resident) in 19%, consultant (attending physician) in 1.4%, and "other" in 2.6%. Guidelines developed for A&E should target the commonest presenting problem categories, six of which account for 83% of all medical attendances, and be directed towards senior house officers.
@article{armon_determining_2001,
	title = {Determining the common medical presenting problems to an accident and emergency department},
	volume = {84},
	issn = {1468-2044},
	abstract = {All accident and emergency (A\&E) attendances over a one year period were prospectively studied in order to determine common medical presenting problems. Data were collected on children (0-15 years) attending a paediatric A\&E department in Nottingham between February 1997 and February 1998. A total of 38 982 children were seen. The diagnoses of 26 756 (69\%) were classified as trauma or surgical, and 10 369 (27\%) as medical; 1857 (4\%) could not be classified. The commonest presenting problems reported for "medical" children were breathing difficulty (31\%), febrile illness (20\%), diarrhoea with or without vomiting (16\%), abdominal pain (6\%), seizure (5\%), and rash (5\%). The most senior doctor seeing these patients in A\&E was a senior house officer (intern or junior resident) in 78\% of cases, paediatric registrar (senior resident) in 19\%, consultant (attending physician) in 1.4\%, and "other" in 2.6\%. Guidelines developed for A\&E should target the commonest presenting problem categories, six of which account for 83\% of all medical attendances, and be directed towards senior house officers.},
	language = {eng},
	number = {5},
	journal = {Archives of Disease in Childhood},
	author = {Armon, K. and Stephenson, T. and Gabriel, V. and MacFaul, R. and Eccleston, P. and Werneke, U. and Smith, S.},
	month = may,
	year = {2001},
	pmid = {11316679},
	pmcid = {PMC1718762},
	pages = {390--392},
}

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