The Interaction Level of Emergency Department Patients with Their Family Physicians and Their Expectations from Primary Health Care: A Survey Study

Abstract

Aim: One of the main reasons of emergency department (ED) crowding is that non-urgent patients often use EDs instead of primary healthcare. The aim of this study was to determine the interaction level of ED patients with their family physicians and their expectations fromprimary health care.Materials and Methods: This study was carried out with adult patients who admitted to ED within the regular working hours in a period ofone month. The study was conducted through questionnaires in a training and research hospital, in Turkey. The data of 800 patients wereanalyzed and compared, half of which were from non-urgent patients.Results: Urgent patients were mostly between 40 and 68 years of age with chronic diseases, while non-urgent patients were between 28and 48 years of age with a higher level of education and employment in a full-time job. It was determined that patients often applied toED on their own decision. Approximately one third of the patients stated that they did not initially consult their family physicians abouttheir health problems. As recommendations, both patient groups indicated that the primary health care should be more accessible and itshould provide more medical analysis.Conclusion: It was observed that non-urgent patients did not interact adequately with their family physicians. The recommendations ofthe patients should be taken into consideration and they should be encouraged to use primary health care more efficiently. This may beeffective in reducing the ED crowding.