[Appropriateness of admissions to an internal medicine department of a second level hospital].

Background: Study about the admissions appropriateness in the Internal Medicine ward of Hospital Juan Ramón Jiménez.
Material and Methods: Retrospective review of the admissions in the first three months of 1997 not coming from any other ward. Two physicians not responsible of the admission evaluated separately the medical records by using the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. 201 patients were selected randomly from the 518 admissions which accomplished the criteria formerly exposed.
Results: 13.4% of the admissions did not fulfill any criteria of the Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. The most frequent inadequate admission cause was for diagnostic purposes (66%). No significative difference was found in the percentage of inappropriate admissions with respect to age, gender, days of stay and number of previous admissions.
Conclusions: The percentage of inappropriate admissions was slightly lower than that of similar studies carried out in similar conditions, probably because of the possibility of moving the patient to lower levels of care units according their needs.