[Non-urgent emergency department visits at a children's hospital]

The primary function of an Emergency Department is to assist patients with acute conditions; however, many visits are for nonurgent reasons. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of nonurgent emergency department visits and to describe the reasons for them.

Cross-sectional and descriptive study, conducted in a Pediatric Hospital. We included patients aged between 1 month and 18 years, who presented to the emergency department during the whole day, in working and non-working days. We defined as nonurgent visits those corresponding to level 5 in the Emergency Severity Index classification.

We included 249 visits; 59% of which were nonurgent. The main reason referred was the difficulty to obtain an appointment in a primary care center (42.9%). Nonurgent visits were more frequent in working days (p= 0.007), conducted by caregivers living within 15 km of the hospital (p= 0.003) and those who used to visit the emergency department when they were children (p= 0.005). Patients with chronic diseases (p= 0.001), those who were referred by another professional (p= 0.002), and caregivers who lived without another adult in their home (p= 0.002) consulted less frequently for nonurgent reasons.

Frequency of nonurgent visits was high. The main reason referred was the difficulty to obtain an appointment with a primary care centre.