Key Words :
Emergency, Emergency Department (ED), Casualty, co morbidities, disciplines, admissions

ABSTRACT
Emergency Medicine is yet to be considered as a specialty and the emergency care needs of the patients are catered through the “casually” department in most hospitals in India. However, the workload on this department and the emerging needs of the department as well as patients, play a very crucial role in providing quality services and operational profitability in hospitals. A study was undertaken to analyze the sickness pattern of patients coming to the Emergency Department (ED) and their subsequent pattern of admission vis-a-vis the type of sickness they reported to the Casualty. This apex tertiary care hospital Casualty, which receives approximately 500-600 patients every day, accounts for 11% of the admissions to the hospital. On an average, 20-25 patients are admitted daily from the Casualty. Findings showed that the majority of the patients are admitted under General Medicine; of which, respiratory disorders accounted for the maximum number.

Co morbidities in the form of Diabetes Mellitus and Hypertension were found to be common. It was also found out that once patients were admitted to the ward of the concerned specialty, the rest got accommodated in the emergency wards. A very small percentage of the patients were admitted to private wards from the Casualty. Interestingly, most of the admissions took place in the afternoon shift. While disciplines like Neurosurgery, Cardiology and Gastroenterology had bulk of the admissions, Dental surgery, Dermatology and Psychiatry accounted for the least number of admissions.