Efficiency of emergency services in under developed district of the Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: An emergency department or emergency room is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of patients who present without any prior appointment either by their own means or by that of an ambulance. The main objective of this study was to determine the efficiency of emergency service in Shaykh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan.Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out in the Emergency Department of Shaykh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, from 05-06-2017 to 04-11-2017. A total of 139 subjects were involved in the study. Patients attending Emergency Department of Shaykh Zayed Hospital Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan were included. Patients were observed and followed silently through their stay in the Emergency Department. All the data taken was entered in predesigned perform.Results: In the Emergency Department, among all the patients, 25.9% came with GIT complaints and only 3.6% had eye, ENT and Dental issues. About 48.2% of the patients had the first contact within 4 minutes. This study shows that the treatment of 49.7% patients started within 10 minutes after entering the emergency however for only 3.5% of the patients it took more than 25 minutes to start the treatment. About 42.4% of all the patients left the emergency after treatment within 20 minutes.Conclusions: Emergency medical services are a critical component of national health system in developing countries. Governments and ministries of health need to pay specific attention to develop emergency services and also to increase the health care staff.