Abstract

Background: Non-urgent patients’ visits to emergency department (ED) is a global concern. In-appropriate ED visits places burden on the ED which limits emergency conditions handling, access to good quality services, raises health care costs and compromise patients’ satisfaction.
Objective: We aimed to assess prevalence of non-urgent visits to the ED in two main public hos-pitals in Madinah Region namely king Fahad Hospital (KFH) and Madinah General Hospital (MGH). Furthermore, determinants of non-urgent ED visits, such as sociodemographic factors and patients’ knowledge on ED were evaluated.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 280 ED patients attending KFH and MGH. Patients were classified into urgent and non-urgent ED cases according to the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS). Data were collected through a structured interview-based questionnaire covering sociodemographic characteristics, level of triage, knowledge, and preference of ED as well as reasons for ED preference.
Results: The overall rate of non-urgent visits to the ED was 55%. Non-urgent visits were signifi-cantly higher among younger age group ≤25 years (81%), singles (70.5%), students (77.6%) and Madinah residents (58.3%) (p

Key words: Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS), Emergency department, non-urgent visits; Triage, Primary Health Care (PHC), patient preference, Saudi Arabia.