title: Emergency review clinic: impact on paediatric admissions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inappropriate or unnecessary paediatric inpatient admissions are sometimes unavoidable but are costly and increase pressure on services. Various measures, including paediatric observation units, have been undertaken in an attempt to reduce these admissions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We established an emergency review clinic to assess whether we could reduce admission rates by giving carefully selected children follow-up ED review appointments.
  
  
  METHODS
  An emergency review clinic was run in the paediatric room of the Emergency Department by a senior paediatric registrar during the hours 10 a.m. to 12 midday, Monday to Friday inclusive. Patients were booked into this review clinic from ED. Data relating to paediatric admissions in the years prior to and after the institution of the review clinic were analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant reduction (p < 0.0001) was noted in the paediatric inpatient admission rates following establishment of the review clinic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A paediatric emergency review clinic can significantly reduce unnecessary or inappropriate admissions but more research is needed to quantitatively characterise parent/patient satisfaction in this regard.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Ireland. drbirendrarai@gmail.com.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Ireland.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: McCartan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Ireland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moka
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, Ireland.|Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI), Dublin 2, Ireland.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sharif
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004630:Emergencies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Emergency department; Pediatric admissions; Pediatrics