Neonatal presentation to ER

Abstract: Introduction: The neonatal period (< 28 days old) is a vulnerable period of pediatric health. Although emergencies can certainly occur during this time period, many emergencies department (ED) visits or urgent care visits may be preventable with adequate preventive hospital care in the newborn period and appropriate follow-up with a primary care provider. Non-urgent use of emergency departments may be a source of increased costs and inefficient resource utilization in healthcare. Purpose: This research aims to determine the presenting features, management and disposition of neonatal attendances to the emergency department. Methods: Retrospective observational cross-sectional study of medical records identified via the emergency department of neonatal visits (≤28 days) to King Fahd Hospital of the University (KFHU), Khobar, Saudi Arabia over 12 months (2021 to 2022) carried out. The Chi-square test was performed to compare various etiologies, with a 5% significant level. Results: A total of 649 neonate visited pediatric emergency department with a mean age of 15.5 ± 7.4 days and almost equal distribution of the gender. The most common presentation was Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) (26.8%) followed by physiological jaundice (20.2%) and colic (14%). A total of 205 (31.6%) of the neonates who attended ED had significant laboratory findings. Seventy-nine (12.2%) presenting to PED were admitted to hospital. Conclusion: As emergency department visits increase, health care systems require strategies to deal with nonurgent emergency department use in more effective ways while refocusing limited resources on higher-acuity cases. This highlights the need for caretakers’ education by health staff. It is also important that physicians are aware of the main illnesses in the newborn period and know how to correctly identify the conditions associated to serious pathology.