Trends in Emergency Department Utilization at a Secondary Care Hospital in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Abstract Background Emergency departments (EDs) worldwide are increasingly exposed to overcrowding, excessive patient turnover, prolonged waiting times, and physician burnout. The ED of the General Hospital “Prim dr Abdulah Nakaš” Sarajevo functions as a major referral centre for patients requiring urgent diagnostic evaluation and possible inpatient treatment. This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate trends in emergency department utilization, physician workload, and hospitalization rates between 2015 and 2022. Materials and Methods A retrospective observational study was conducted using official annual reports from the ED between January 2015 and December 2022. The variables included the total number of services provided, ED treatments and discharges performed, inpatient admissions, admission rates, and patient-to-physician ratios. Patients treated in the ED were categorized into five clinical groups: surgical, orthopaedic, internal medicine, urology, and neurology. Correlation analysis was used to assess increases or decreases over time. Statistical significance was established at p Results Over the seven-year study period, the number of ED treatments and discharges increased significantly, as did the total number of services provided. The patient-physician ratio increased 2.5-fold during the study period. A statistically significant increase in the number of patients treated in the ED was observed among the general surgery, orthopaedic and trauma, and neurology…
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