Objective To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of patients in the emergency observation room of Beijing Shijitan Hospital during the last 5 years, to enhance the local and regional construction of education discipline and improve the quality of medical services.Methods A retrospective study was carried out on selected patients admitted to the emergency observation room of the Capital Medical University Affiliated Beijing Shijitan Hospital between January 1st 2014 and December 31st 2018. Statistical analysis was performed to identify associated epidemiological features in these patients.Results Among the 19 518 patients admitted to the emergency observation room, 49.08% were males and 50.92% were females, with a male to female ratio of 1:1.04. The 46-65 age group had the lowest proportion of females of 47.28%, while this proportion reached to 55.38% in the over-80 age group, which was higher than that in the 46-65 and 66-80 age groups, showing statistical significance (P<0.05). During the last 5 years, 59.66% of the patients were aged above 65; the proportion of over 65 years old patients admitted to the emergency observation room of the hospital each year was 53.86%, 53.19%, 57.00%, 65.40%, and 68.79%, respectively, showing an increasing trend (P=0.011). Among the patients diagnosed, 24.20% had respiratory system diseases, 23.67% had circulation system diseases, 14.47% had digestive system diseases, 12.75% had neurological system diseases, and 7.08% had endocrine system diseases. According to the primary diagnosis, the top 10 most predominant diseases were bacterial pneumonia (14.72%), acute and chronic heart failure (7.86%), hypertension (5.00%), arrhythmia (4.02%), coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (3.92%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (3.01%), cerebrovascular disease (2.68%), gastrointestinal hemorrhage (2.66%), acute diabetes (2.43%), and celiac infection (1.73%), which accounted for 48.02% of the total patients admitted. In the winters (December to February) of these 5 years, the total number of patients admitted was 6 145, which contributed to 31.48% of the total admission number, and hence making winter the season with the highest number of patients seeking for medical services.Conclusions According to the spectrum of the disease features, there is a need to enhance the training of specialty and emergency clinics associated with respiratory, circulation, neurological, digestive, and endocrine diseases. Special attention should be paid for treatment and health care targeted at old-aged patients. During winter, the peak hospital visiting time, appropriate medical care service, which addresses the plan of working time, should be provided in order to optimize diagnosis and treatment processes.

Citation： HUANG Junmin, ZHUANG Xucui, WANG Zhen. A retrospective survey on epidemiological characteristics of emergency department patients. West China Medical Journal, 2019, 34(11): 1239-1243. doi: 10.7507/1002-0179.201910111 Copy