• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.283-295
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• 1999

Background: Patients with acute non-traumatic chest pain are among the most challenging patients for care by emergency physicians, so the correct diagnosis and triage of patients with chest pain in the emergency department(ED) becomes important. To avoid discharging patients with acute myocardial infarction(AMI) without medical care, most emergency physicians attempt to admit almost all patients with acute chest pain and order many laboratory tests for the patients. But in practice, many patients with non-cardiac pain can be discharged with simple tests and treatment. These patients occupy expensive intensive care beds, substantially increasing financial cost and time of stay at ED for the diagnosis and treatment of myocardial ischemia and AMI. Despite vigorous efforts to identify patients with ischemic heart disease, approximately 2% to 5% of patients presented to the ED with AMI and chest pain are inadvertently discharged. If the cause for the chest pain is known, rapid and accurate diagnosis can be implemented, preventing wastes in time and money and inadvertent discharge. Methods and Results: The medical records of 488 patients from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1997 were reviewed. There were 320(angina pectoris 140, AMI 128) cases of cardiac diseases, and 168(atypical chest pain 56, pneumothorax 47) cases of non-cardiac diseases. The number of associated symptoms were $1.1{\pm}0.9$ in non-cardiac diseases, $1.4{\pm}1.1$ in cardiac diseases and $1.7{\pm}1.1$ in AMI(p<0.05). In laboratory finding the sensitivity of electrocardiography(EKG) was 96.1%, while the sensitivity of myoglobin test ranked 45.1%. Admission rate was 71.6% in for cardiac diseases and 50.6% for non-cardiac diseases(p<0.01). Mortality rate was 8.8% in all cases, 13.8% in cardiac diseases, 0.6% in non-cardiac diseases, and 28.1% especially in AMI. Conclusion: In conclusion, all emergency physicians should have thorough knowledge of the clinical characteristics of the diseases which cause non-traumatic chest pain, because a patient with any of these life-threatening diseases would require immediate treatment. Detailed history on the patient should be taken and physical examination performed. Then, the most simple diagnostic approach should be used to make an early diagnosis and to provide treatment.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.41-54
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• 2007

Background : The causes of chest pain vary but the leading cause of chest pain is ischemic heart disease. Mortality from ischemic chest pain has increased more than two fold over the last ten years. The purpose of this study was to determine the data necessary for rapid treatment of patients with signs and symptoms of ischemic chest pain in the emergency department (ED). Materials and Methods : We interviewed 170 patients who had ischemic chest pain in the emergency department of Yeungnam University Hospital over 6 months with a protocol developed for the evaluation. The protocol used included gender, age, arriving time, prior hospital visits, methods of transportation to the hospital, past medical history, final diagnosis, and outcome information from follow up. Results : Among 170 patients, there were 118 men (69.4%) and the mean age was 63 years. The patients diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were 106 (62.4%) and with angina pectoris (AP) were 64 (37.6%). The patients who had visited another hospital were 68.8%, twice the number that came directly to this hospital (p<0.05). The ratio of patients who visited another hospital were higher for the AMI (75.5%) than the AP (59.4%) patients (p<0.05). The median time spent deciding whether to go to hospital was 521 minutes and for transportation was 40 minutes. With regard to patients that visited another hospital first, the median time spent at the other hospital was 40 minutes. The total median time spent before arriving at our hospital was 600 minutes (p>0.05). The patients who had a total time delay of over 6 hours was similar 54.8% in the AMI group and 57.9% in the AP group (p>0.05). As a result, only 12.2% of the patients with an AMI received thrombolytics, and 48.8% of them had a simultaneous percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In the emergency department 8.5% of the patients with an AMI died. Conclusion : Timing is an extremely important factor for the treatment of ischemic heart disease. Most patients arrive at the hospital after a long time lapse from the onset of chest pain. In addition, most patients present to a different hospital before they arrive at the final hospital for treatment. Therefore, important time is lost and opportunities for treatment with thrombolytics and/or PCI are diminished leading to poor outcomes for many patients in the ED. The emergency room treatment must improve for the identification and treatment of ischemic heart disease so that patients can present earlier and treatment can be started as soon as they present to an emergency room.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.25 no.1 s.37
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• pp.88-100
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• 1992

This study was conducted to assess the effects of implementation of the patient referral system started July 1st, 1989. A comparison on the pattern of outpatient services of the Departments of Internal Medicine, General Surgery, and Pediatrics at the Yeungnam University Hospital was conducted for each one year period before and after implementation of the patient referral system. The pre-implementation period was from July 1, 1988 to June 30, 1989 and the post-implementation period was from July 1, 1989 to June 30, 1990. The information used for this study was obtained from official forms, prepared by the Yeungnam University Hospital, and submitted to the Korean Medical Insurance Cooperatives. After implementation of the patient referral system, the number of outpatient cases in the Department of Internal Medicine decreased 36.1% from 9,669 cases to 6,181 cases a year. Cases in the Department of General Surgery decreased 23.7% from 1,864 cases to 1,422 cases a year. The number of cases in the Department of Pediatrics decreased 36.9% from 3,372 cases to 2,128 cases a year. After implementation of the patient referral system, the average age of cases in the Departments of Internal Medicine and General Surgery was 52.5 and 49.7 years old, respectively. This was a significant increase in comparison with the pre-implementation period. After implementation of patient referral system, the proportion of new outpatients in the Department of Internal Medicine decreased from 24.1% to 14.6%, the Department of General Surgery from 36.0% to 23.4%, and the Department of Pediatrics from 15.5% to 8.3%. The number of visits per case decreased significantly in the Department of Internal Medicine(from 1.74 to 1.61), but there was no significant change in the Departments of General Surgery and Pediatrics. The length of treatment per case increased significantly in all three departments(from 16.1 days to 19.3 days in the Department of Internal Medicine, from 12.0 days to 15.2 days in the Department General Surgery, and 8.9 days to 11.2 days in the Department of Pediatrics). The number of clinical tests per case increased significantly in the Department of Internal Medicine (from 2.2 to 2.5), in the Department of Pediatrics(from 0.8 to 1.1) and increased in the Department of General Surgery(from 6.4 to 6.6). The average medical cost per case decreased from 43,900 Won to 42,500 Won in the Department of Internal Medicine, while the cost increased from 75,900 Won to 78,500 Won in the Department of General Surgery and from 12,700 Won to 13,500 Won in the Department of Pediatrics. In case-mix, the chronic degenerative disease(i. e. hypertension, diabetes mellitus, angina pectoris, malignant neoplasm, and pulmonary tuberculosis) ranked higher and acute infectious diseases and simple cases(i. e. gastritis and duodenitis, haemorrhoids, anal fissure, carbuncle, acute URI, and bronchitis) ranked lower after implementation of the patient referral system compared to before implementation.