title: [Pediatric emergencies in a community health center].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The excess of pediatric emergencies going to hospitals has been the subject of many studies in Spain and, on some occasions, this problem has attributed to the inefficiency of pediatric primary care. Our main objective was to evaluate whether or not our community health center is an efficient filter for hospital emergencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a prospective one year long study of all pediatric emergency demands within our normal office hours (workdays, from 08:00 to 21:00 hours).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of emergencies amounted to 1,294, with an average of 5.78 per day. The largest inflow occurred in September and the lowest in August. Most of the emergencies were between 16:00 and 19:00 hours. Fifty percent of the patients were under 4 years of age. We made 86 different diagnoses according to the WONCA classification. Only 10 diagnoses came with a frequency superior to 3%, and 60% of the emergencies were related to one of these 10 diagnoses. Of all pediatric emergencies, 94.7% were completely resolved by us. Only 60 patients (4.6%) were sent-on to hospital emergency services. Among these patients, 40 required traumatological or surgical attention, 5 ophthalmological care, 3 otorhinolaryngological care, and only 12 exclusively needed pediatric attention. In 55.7% of the cases there was no reason to use the emergency channel.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During our office hours, our community health center is an efficient filter for hospital pediatric emergencies.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud de Las Rozas, Madrid.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herranz Jordán
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hernández Merino
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cáceres González
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castaños Jover
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rodríguez Valdés
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010372:Pediatrics; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013030:Spain; D013997:Time Factors
vernacular_title: Consultas pediátricas urgentes en un centro de salud.