[Demand for paediatric emergency care in a community hospital].

Objective: To study the characteristics of paediatric emergency demand and care delivery in the emergency room of a community hospital.

Design: Analysis of the care demand and medical attention given to pediatric patients in an emergency room during 2006. Retrospective review of patients' medical reports.

Setting: Emergency room, Hospital da Barbanza, Riveira, A Coruña, Spain.

Participants: Random selection of 1330 patients from 3990 cases attended in 2006.

Main Measurements: Age, sex, time of arrival at the emergency room, type of pathology, medical-surgical area, destination on discharge, which medical staff signed the discharge, and length of stay in the emergency room.

Results: There were 731 men and 599 women. Demand was greater on the afternoon shift (45%). Discharge destination was mainly to home (94%), with the emergency medical staff signing it in 60.7% of cases and the pediatrician in 34.6%. Children aged 6 or more suffered mainly from trauma; and younger children, from infectious diseases. There were no statistically significant differences between age groups for length of stay in the emergency room, but patients attended by pediatricians stayed longer.

Conclusions: There was a clear majority of little children, especially boys, in our study. Higher afternoon attendance probably occurs because of greater time availability of parents and children. Main causes of emergency pediatric care are infectious diseases and trauma. The child's home is the most frequent destination on discharge. The fact that most discharges are signed by the emergency doctor, together with the increase in emergency paediatric care in recent years, points to the need for constant updating of this medical area by emergency doctors.