[Emergency hospital admissions. A survey and consumer assessment of conditions in an emergency department admission office].

159 patients admitted to a local hospital completed a questionnaire during the autumn of 1992 in order to evaluate the service rendered to the patients during their stay in the admission/emergency unit. The patients were generally satisfied with the service rendered in the admission/emergency unit. However, some patients were dissatisfied with the information given by the nurses and the doctors. 83 of the patients (57%) were examined by a doctor within 15 minutes after admission. Information about how long and why they had to wait increased the level of satisfaction among the patients who had to wait more than 15 minutes. With respect to the patients' rating of different skills among nurses and doctors, only 37% of the patients rated technical competence as the most important factor for the nursing profession, as opposed to 59% for the doctors. For both professions the ability to give information was rated as the second most important factor. Since the comments from the patients reflect parts of the service that can be changed, we believe such surveys can be of great value for the hospitals' efforts to improve the service provided.