[Benefit of the implementation of on-call neurology physicians in a general hospital].
BACKGROUND
Most Spanish hospitals have no oncall neurologist (OCN) for emergency patients. This study was designed to highlight the benefits in patient management when an OCN system is implemented.


METHODS
We conducted a prospective study in the University Hospital of Albacete during the first year of OCN implementation (2004). We also compared stroke patients admissions from emergency department (ED) in 2004 with respect to 2003.


RESULTS
OCN attended 2,745 patients (7.6 per day), 73.1% of these calls coming from ED between 3 PM and 10 PM. Acute stroke was the most frequent consultation. A total of 118 calls were made to determine the need for thrombolytic therapy and 323 emergency neurosonologic examinations were performed by the OCN during the duty. A total of 44.8% of the attended patients were admitted and 30.1% were referred to outpatient clinics. Our hospital had a significant decrease (12.3%) in stroke patients admissions over 2004 compared with 2003 despite an actual increase of total admissions in the neurological ward. The mean hospital stay of stroke patients was shorter in the neurology department than in the internal medicine one.


CONCLUSIONS
OCN improves the quality of attention to the neurological patient, reduces the number of unnecessary hospital admissions and increases the status of the neurological department. Implementation of on-call neurology physicians for 24 hours is necessary in all those sites that provide care to emergency patients and have neurology services.
Sopelana
D
D
Complejo Hospitalario Universitario, Albacete. davidsopelana@terra.es
Segura
T
T
Vadillo
A
A
Herrera
M
M
Hernández
J
J
García Muñozguren
S
S
Mejías
V
V
Zorita
M D
MD
D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009462:Neurology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013030:Spain; D020521:Stroke / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D000078329:Workforce