title: [Staffing the emergency departments].
abstract: In recent years, there has been a growing public demand that the emergency department (ED) should be staffed by an orthopaedic surgeon. We questioned the necessity of this, and here present a prospective study of 4500 consecutive patients attending the ED of Naestved Hospital. About 70% of the patients were found to have injuries or ailments that belonged to the orthopaedic specialty, and were treated by doctors from this department, but only 15% of these cases required treatment by a specialist in orthopaedic surgery. The remaining contacts to the ED concerned cases belonging to other specialties. Eight percent of all contacts resulted in admission, half to the orthopaedic ward and half to other departments. In conclusion, about 60% of all cases could be treated by any doctor, and the ordinary physician would in actual fact be able to treat more cases than the orthopaedic surgeon with at least as good a result. Thus, we question whether the orthopaedic surgeon is the best person to be in charge of the ED.
authors.affiliation: Ortopaedkirurgisk afdeling, Centralsygehuset i Naestved.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
mesh_terms: D003718:Denmark; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009985:Orthopedics; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000078329:Workforce
vernacular_title: Skadestuernes bemanding.