ACUTE HOSPITAL ADMISSION SYSTEMS - PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS

This study was undertaken to examine the existing system of access for general practitioners in arranging acute admissions to three general hospitals in the Southern Health Board (SHB) area, One hundred and twe nty eight patients were admitted to the three hospitals over a one wee k period. General practitioners were surveyed on the process of admiss ion for each patient. Response rate was 118/128 (92.2%), Hospital A ha d 53 admissions, Hospital B had 41 admissions and Hospital C had 24 ad missions, In total, 30/118 (25.4%) admissions took over one hour to ar range, of these 23 (76.7%) were admitted to Hospital A, 4 (13.3%) were admitted to Hospital B and 3 (10.0%) were admitted to Hospital C, The admission sister was responsible for confirming the route of admissio n in 102 (86.4%) of cases, In Hospital A, 23/53 (43.4%) patients were referred to Accident and Emergency (A&E) for assessment prior to admis sion, 4/41 (9.8%) were referred in Hospital B, and 2/24 (8.3%) in Hosp ital C, In the light of current findings, possible alternatives to the current acute admissions system are discussed.