Scand J Trauma Resus
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Scand J Trauma Resus · Aug 2011
Comparative StudyAcute referral of patients from general practitioners: should the hospital doctor or a nurse receive the call?
Surprisingly little is known about the most efficient organization of admissions to an emergency hospital. It is important to know, who should be in front when the GP requests an acute admission. The aim of the study was to analyse how experienced ED nurses perform when assessing requests for admissions, compared with hospital physicians. ⋯ We found no differences in the frequency of admitted patients or unnecessary admissions, but the nurses redirected significantly more patients to the right hospital according to the catchment area, and used only half the time for the assessment. We find, that nurses, trained for the assignment, are able to handle referrals for emergency admissions, but also advise the subject to be explored in further studies including other assessment models and GP satisfaction.