MPH, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Introduction: The study analysed the admission trends at six adult medical wards in a regional hospital in Gauteng over 2005 and 2007.
Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of data from admission ward registers and patient case notes. Information obtained included age, gender, duration of stay, clinical outcomes and disease profile. The study population comprised of all patients admitted to the adult medical wards at Tambo Memorial Hospital for the period 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005 and 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2007.
Results: The number of medical admissions increased by 2.07% during the years of study. The male admissions were slightly higher than the female admissions. The mean age of male patients decreased from 42.30 years to 40.41 years. In contrast the mean age for female patients increased from 38.00 years to 40.50 years. The average length of stay decreased from 6.16 days to 5.33 days. The younger age groups (15-34 years of age) accounted for the majority of admissions. Based on the ICD 10 coding, infectious and parasitic diseases accounted for the majority of the admissions followed by respiratory disorders. Tuberculosis became the most frequent diagnosis and was prevalent in the younger age groups followed by pneumonia. Hypertension was a common diagnosis in the older age groups (55 years and older). As was expected the majority of patients (86-95% in 2005 and 80.24% in 2007) were discharged home but a considerable number of patients were transferred to other institutions. Importantly, a decrease in the mortality rate from 4.02% to 0.03% was also demonstrated.
Conclusions: An increase in the number of patient’s admissions, a decrease in the average length of stay and a decrease in mortality rate were noted during the study period. Changing trends with regards to gender, age and disease profile were also observed. The challenges and recommendations identified by the study will provide valid information that would be meaningful to hospital management as well as potential users such as budget planners, resource allocators and efficient referral pathways designers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/8795 |
| Date | 23 September 2010 |
| Creators | Naidoo, Aroomugan |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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