Summary
Structure and operational organisation of paediatric emergency services: a Spanish national survey
Luaces Cubells C, Ortiz Rodríguez J, Trenchs Sainz De La Maza V, Pou Fernández J, Mateos Rodríguez AA
Affiliation of the authors
Emergency Medicine Section, Department of Paediatrics, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu. University of Barcelona, Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
DOI
Quote
Luaces Cubells C, Ortiz Rodríguez J, Trenchs Sainz De La Maza V, Pou Fernández J, Mateos Rodríguez AA. Structure and operational organisation of paediatric emergency services: a Spanish national survey. Emergencias. 2008;20:322-7
Summary
Background: A good understanding of the structure and operational organization of
pediatric emergency departments (EDs) is essential for the design and promotion of
interventions that can lead to improvement.
Objectives: 1) To describe the structure and operational organization of pediatric EDs in
Spanish hospitals. 2) To determine the degree of fulfillment of the basic quality
indicators established by the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine (SEUP).
Methods: The SEUP Quality Group designed a questionnaire to measure the described
objectives. Forty hopstial EDs with SEUP members were surveyed. Answers received
between September 2006 and January 2007 were analyzed.
Results: Thirty-four questionnaires were received. Twenty-three EDs had a chief of staff,
25 had emergency staff, and 30 had residents in different years of training. On most
nights and weekends, medical care is given by nonemergency staff. Eighteen EDs had
problems when staff doctors were on leave. The EDs surveyed were compliant on 56%
to 88% of the items related to the dimension “diseases”. Under the dimension
“activities”, 7 (21%) did not have a triage system. On items related to documentation,
all EDs (100%) completed care reports and 22 entered diagnostic codes. Under the
dimension “workplace resources”, 33 (97%) performed a check of the crash cart.
Conclusions: Important opportunities for improvement were identified at the levels of
structural organization and functioning. The lack of an ED chief of staff and/or
permanent staff was the main factor causing the detected problems. The analysis of
quality indicators shows that compliance is acceptable in the area of diseases but was
deficient in those of activities and documentation, probably due to inadequate computer
systems.