[Emergency care in the city of Salamanca].
OBJECTIVE
To find, through a study of the Casualty Department (CD) of the University Hospital of Salamanca, the numbers of patients attending on their own initiative and those sent with a referral note by Primary Care (PC) doctors; and to analyse the quality of both the PC referral documents and the CD reports.


METHODS
A descriptive, retrospective study of Clinical Records, applying criteria for evaluating the quality of PC documents and CD reports.


METHODS
Casualty Department of the University Hospital of Salamanca, consisting of two hospitals.


METHODS
Overall, 2,299 Clinical Records (patients) were used: 941 and 1,359 requests for care, respectively for the two hospitals, in one week.


RESULTS
There was a high degree of direct use of the CD. The quality analysis revealed a low level of compliance in the referral documents written by the PC doctors and, on the contrary, high compliance in reports by the CD doctors.


CONCLUSIONS
Social-health factors may have an impact on the high use of the CD on the users' own initiative. There is no adequate understanding or coordination between the different care levels, as is demonstrated by the low quality of PC doctors' referral documents and the high level of compliance in the reports written by CD doctors.
Diego
M L
ML
Dirección Provincial Insalud, Salamanca.
González Hierro
M
M
D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain
La asistencia urgente en la ciudad de Salamanca.