title: [The general practitioner faced with the choice of hospitalization: an analysis of the data from the Follow-Up System computerized network].
abstract: The Project "Informatization of the General Practitioner" aimed at networking the work stations of a randomized set of 150 general practitioners equipped with the "Follow-Up System" software, for the collection of information related to the activity carried out, to be electronically transferred to a central unit was developed in the frame of the finalized Project of the National Research Council: "Prevention and Control of the Disease Factors". During the project activity, a study on prescribed hospitalizations was carried out. The contents of items regarding hospitalization diagnosis show that diagnoses concerning diseases included in chapter ICD-9: "Symptoms, signs and morbid conditions not well defined" represent 30.3% of the total; most of these undefined syndromes can be identified under the item "abdominal pain" with 18.2% of cases. Obviously in the case of appendicitis (12.1% of hospitalizations) the hospitalization carried out by the physician resulted to be necessary, in the case of biliary lithiasis (8 cases, 7.4%), the physician could have treated the patient without hospitalization. The interest of such data is to induce a sort of provocation in order to observe, within 8% of hospitalizations following abdominal pain, what rate of hospitalization could be avoided, giving the adequate support to the general practitioner in order to decide the behaviour to have.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Epidemiologia, Cattedra di Igiene, Università Tor Vergata, Roma.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Palombi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Buonomo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Capozzi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fusiello
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mariotti
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noce
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003933:Diagnosis; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy; D008875:Middle Aged; D012984:Software / Q000706:statistics & numerical data