Evaluating the patient profile of orthopedic outpatient clinic in a state hospital providing secondary health care

This study aimed to guide the efforts to improve the efficiency of healthcare by revealing the demographic data and disease profile of patients applying to a state hospital which was the only secondary healthcare institution in aregion, and which had only one orthopedic specialist. The study included the patients who applied to the Orthopedics and Traumatology outpatient clinic of the state hospital in Kestel District Town of Bursa Province in Turkey in the 1 March 2019-29 February 2020 period. The ages, genders, complaints, diagnoses, involved body partsof the patients admitted during this period as well as treatment modalities used were given in tables and figures. A total of 13,397 patients who applied to the Orthopedics and Traumatology Department with various complaints were included in the present study. Of all patients, 4,469 were men (33.3%) and 8,928 were women (66.6%). It was revealed that 4,984 patients (37.2%) applied to a primary healthcare institution first for theircurrent complaints whereas 8,413 patients (62.8%) used the Orthopedics and Traumatology Outpatient Clinic as a primary healthcare center. The most common complaint to apply the outpatient clinic involved knee (39%) followed by foot-ankle (16%) and hand-wrist (12%). The most common diagnoses made for the patients who applied during the study period were arthritis (30%), tendinopathy/enthesopathy (16.6%), and soft tissue injuries (15.7%). Primary healthcare examinations were requested for most patients, and only a small percentage of patients needed secondary healthcare examinations. A high percentage of patients were treated in our secondary healthcare center and very few of the patients were referred to tertiary healthcare institutions. There is a considerable patient density in health institutions in Turkey. Especially orthopedic physicians in secondary healthcare institutions have a high number and variety of patients. There is a need to improve health policies in this regard.

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