Use of civilian emergency departments by the Israel Defense Force for emergency care for soldiers

A. D. Cohen, A. Porath, R. Bessorai, A. Shulman, Y. Snir

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many physicians, civilian as well as in military, feel that some referrals of soldiers to civilian emergency departments are inappropriate and that soldiers should receive medical attention within their military units. We therefore evaluated referrals of soldiers to our emergency department. 707 referral letters from military physicians and the corresponding emergency room discharge letters were evaluated. Most soldiers were referred for mild trauma (45.0%) or miscellaneous diseases (52.9%); 22 (3.1%) were hospitalized. It appears that some military physicians use the civilian hospital emergency department as a surrogate for an outpatient specialty clinic and for x-ray and laboratory services. This is in contrast to the designated functions of the emergency department which are to provide emergency and trauma services and to evaluate the need for hospitalization of referred patients.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)815-817, 912
JournalHarefuah
Volume138
Issue number10
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2000
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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