The Emergency Department presenting complaint as predictor of in-hospital fatality.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between major discharge diagnoses and prediction of in-hospital death has been intensively studied. The relation between the presenting complaint at the Emergency Department (ED) and in-hospital fatality, however, is less well known.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if presenting complaints add information regarding in-hospital fatality risk for nonsurgical ED patients.

METHODS: Investigating the relationship of in-hospital fatality rate and presenting complaint by comparing the presenting complaints, discharge diagnoses and in-hospital fatality for all nonsurgical patients visiting the ED during 1 year.

RESULTS: Of 12,995 nonsurgical admissions, 40% were treated as in-hospital patients. Among these, 328 in-hospital deaths occurred. Age was the most powerful predictor of death in hospitalized patients (P<0.0001). After adjustment for age, the female sex was found to be protective [odds ratio (OR) 0.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58-0.92, P=0.007)]. Compared with the largest complaint group, chest pain with an in-hospital fatality rate of 2.5%, there was a significantly increased risk of dying among those with stroke-like symptoms (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.35-3.08, P=0.0007), dyspnoea (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.27-3.00, P=0.002) or general disability (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.17-2.79, P=0.008).

CONCLUSIONS: The presenting complaint at the ED carries valuable information of the risk for in-hospital fatality in nonsurgical patients. This knowledge can be valuable in the prioritization between different patient groups in the process of initiating diagnostics and treatment procedures at the ED.