title: [Appropriateness of hospitalization in a ward of internal medicine--using the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP) is an instrument to study the appropriate use of hospital beds based in objective criteria that classify a hospital admission as appropriate or inappropriate.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Evaluate the appropriateness of hospital admissions and stays of the patients of our Internal Medicine Department using the concurrent version of AEP.
  
  
  METHODS
  Transversal study where was evaluated the clinical record of the patients admitted to our Department of Internal Medicine on March 13th of 2003, excluding all these who were admitted the day of the study. We analyzed demographic and clinic parameters and the appropriateness of hospital admission and stay using the AEP.
  
  
  RESULTS
  22 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 54.5% of male gender with a average age of 70.7 years. All the admissions were considered appropriate. The most common criteria was the need of intravenous therapy (100%), followed by the sudden lost of corporal mobility (12.3%). 27.3% of stays were considered inappropriate on the day of the study. The most common criteria of appropriateness was the need of intravenous therapy (93.7%). The most usual reason of inappropriate stay was the existence of planned discharge, but without the order written down in the clinical file (66.7%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The AEP allows an efficient evaluation of the appropriateness of the hospital admissions and stays in a Health Unit, being used for a better utilization of resources. In our department all admissions were justified and about a quarter of stays were considered inappropriate using the AEP.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Medicina (Sector1), Centro Hospitalar do Barlavento Algarvio, Portimão.
authors.forename: Nuno B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Vera
authors.forename: Estela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ferrão
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taveira
authors.forename: Luísa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.forename: Maria J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Grade
authors.forename: Isidoro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.forename: Luísa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arez
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003211:Concurrent Review / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male