[Referrals to the surgical emergency room]

A review of 871 consecutive patients referred to our surgical emergency room is presented. 54% were self-referred, 18% were soldiers referred by army physicians and only 8% were referred by family physicians. Only 60% lived in the hospital admission area. The average stay in the emergency room was 4.1 hours, and only 6.5% needed to be hospitalized. We suggest setting up first aid stations in hospitals to serve as pre-emergency rooms, and that only cases that really require its services be referred to the emergency room.