[The interest of a short-lived orientation unit in a department of internal medicine].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the activity of a short-lived orientation unit (SLO) with 9 beds that only receives patients from the emergency department in whom diagnosis and/or specific treatment must be set-up while awaiting a vacant bed in the appropriate medical department.


METHODS
During the 29 months after the creation of the SLO (Feb. 2001 to June 2003), we analysed the parameters supplied every month by the medical computer department: number of patients hospitalized in the SLO, age, gender, principle diagnosis according to the PMSI coded data, duration of hospitalisation, number of deaths, number of releases direct to home, number of transfers to a specialized unit and qualification of the referral units.


RESULTS
1840 patients (mean age: 73 years) were hospitalized in this unit. The most frequent diseases were bronchopneumonia (16%), syncope episode (14%), cerebral stroke (12%), thromboembolic diseases (11%) and heart failure (10%). The mean duration of hospitalization was 3.7 days (less than 48 hours in 46% of cases). In 40% of cases, patients were able to return directly to their homes. In 62% of cases, the patients were referred to a specialised unit within 48 hours. The functioning of the SLO has various specificities (repeated personalised telephone contacts, letters for rapid transfer, difficult co-operation with certain departments...).


CONCLUSIONS
The SLO is useful for patients since it accelerates their adapted management and allows quick transfer to the unit adapted to their pathology, permitting correct adequation between the pathologies of the patients and the competence of the specialised medical unit.
Berthier
Sabine
S
Service de médecine interne et immunologie clinique, Hôpital le Bocage, Dijon (21). sabineberthier@yahoo.fr
Bonnotte
Bernard
B
Khau Van Kien
Aurélie
A
Deboulard
Agnès
A
Benzenine
Eric
E
Bismuth
Marie-Jeanne
MJ
Chapuis
François
F
Lorcerie
Bernard
B
D000368:Aged; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission; D010360:Patient Transfer; D012017:Referral and Consultation