Department of Periodontology, School of Graduate Dentistry, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Department of Maxillofacial Rehabilitation and Temporomandibular Disorders Unit, School of Graduate Dentistry, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel.
Isr J Health Policy Res. 2020 May 22;9(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s13584-020-00385-2.
Studies of emergency department (ED) visits for non-traumatic dental conditions (NTDCs) have been carried out in the USA and Canada. In Israel, there is a shortage of such studies. In the current retrospective study, we report on the frequency and distribution of NTDCs ED visits at Rambam Health Care Campus (Rambam), in Haifa, which is an academic hospital serving more than 2.4 million residents of Northern Israel.
The data concerning ED visits at Rambam between 2010 and 2017 were obtained retrospectively from Rambam's computerized clinical and personal database of adult patients (≥18 years) visiting the ED for NTDCs.
Overall, 1.8% of the patients who visited the Rambam ED, were identified as presenting with NTDCs. From 2010 until 2017, the number of NTDCs admissions increased by 45%, while the total ED admissions rose by 16%. The average waiting time for maxillofacial consultations for patients with NTDCs increased from 102 min in 2010 to 138 min in 2017. The busiest hours in the ED for NTDCs were during the morning shifts (47% of daily visits).
The results of the study show that systemic and conceptual changes are needed to reduce the number of non-trauma related applications to ED.These changes can be by increasing the number of personnel or by introducing recent advances such as tele-medicine for prescreening of patients. This change calls for a greater involvement of the health policy leaders to provide alternative solutions for emergency dental care.
已在美国和加拿大开展了有关非创伤性牙科疾病（NTDC）急诊就诊的研究。在以色列，此类研究较少。在当前的回顾性研究中，我们报告了在海法的 Rambam 医疗保健园区（Rambam）急诊科就诊的 NTDC 就诊的频率和分布情况，该医院是一家为以色列北部超过 240 万居民服务的学术医院。
我们从 Rambam 的成人患者（≥18 岁）计算机化临床和个人急诊就诊数据库中回顾性地获取了 2010 年至 2017 年 Rambam 急诊科 NTDC 就诊的数据。
总体而言，1.8％的患者因 NTDC 就诊于 Rambam 急诊科。从 2010 年到 2017 年，NTDC 就诊人数增加了 45％，而急诊就诊总数增加了 16％。患有 NTDC 的患者接受颌面会诊的平均等候时间从 2010 年的 102 分钟增加到 2017 年的 138 分钟。急诊科 NTDC 就诊最繁忙的时间是上午班（每天就诊的 47％）。
研究结果表明，需要进行系统和概念上的改变，以减少与非创伤性相关的对急诊科的就诊次数。这些改变可以通过增加人员数量或通过引入远程医疗等最新技术来对患者进行预筛查来实现。这一改变需要健康政策领导者的更多参与，以提供紧急牙科护理的替代解决方案。
