Authors

Montserrat Maynegre Santaulària, Alexandre Ortega Roca, Ana Tor Llacuna, Carmen Sánchez López, Lourdes Martínez Angulo, Myriam Boquet Martínez

Position

Diplomadas en Enfermería. Institut Català de la Salut. Servicio de Atención Primaria Mataró, Maresme, Barcelona.

Contact address

Institut Català de la Salut. Camí del Mig, 36. 08303 Mataró.

Contact email: mmaynegre.bnm.ics@gencat.cat

Abstract

Objective: to assess the degree in which nursing staff of the primary care teams of the Maresme area (Barcelona) resolve urgent care demand by applying triage in 2007.
Material and methods: retrospective descriptive design performed on visits generated in 13 basic health areas of the Mataro-Maresme Primary Care hhhhhhservice. The study subjects were patients of any age who attended the centre with self-perceived urgency and were seen the same day by the nurse, during the period ranging from January to December 2007. Studied variables were sex, age, how the visit was resolved (by the nurse or by referral to the patient’s family doctor/pediatrician).
Results: a total of 53,962 visits that were managed as urgent by nurses were analysed. The patient mean age was 39.9 years and 54.1% were women. 84.6% of patients were over the age of 14. 42% of cases were resolved, which decreased significantly (p < 0.000) to 31.4% if the patient was under the age of 15.
Conclusions: the high degree in which nurses resolved urgent visits is evidence that the nurse may be the first point of entry into the health care system, responding to urgent needs, whether it is by resolving the consultation or managing it.

Keywords:

triage; emergency; Primary Care; researchdescriptive

Versión en Español

Título:

La gestión de la demanda urgente en los equipos de atención primaria del Maresme