Demographics and quality assurance in an emergency department in a medical center in eastern Taiwan

Objective: To understand the demographics of emergency patients (EPs) in eastern Taiwan, as well as the quality of the emergency department (ED) of the only medical center in eastern Taiwan. Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study from July 1999 through June 2000 using analysis of data retrieved from the newly developed medical computer system. Results: During the study period, 19.0% of 51,618 EPs were admitted to the hospital. Most (23.0%) of those admitted patients were from the nontrauma section, followed by those from trauma section (19.8%) and pediatrics (7.9%). More elderly was found in the nontrauma section than in trauma section (25.8% Vs 10.9%, p