Deaths in hospital emergency departments in Andalusia: patient characteristics

Objective: To describe the characteristics of patients who die in hospital emergency departments in Andalusia, Spain, in relation to patients who die after hospitalization. Methods: Deaths occurring in an emergency department or in other departments of Andalusian hospitals were analyzed; data were extracted from the hospitals' minimum basic data sets. Age, marital status, province, and cause of death were recorded. From the data we constructed logistic regression models and estimated crude and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% Cls. Results: Of the 23 295 deaths registered, 2853 occurred in emergency departments; 47.7% of the deceased patients were females. More deaths occurred among widows or widowers and among patients with cancer or ischemic heart disease. After adjustment for confounders, the variables that remained associated with risk of death in the emergency department were older age and ischemic heart disease (OR, 1.56). Conclusion: Most deaths in Andalusian emergency departments are in elderly persons and the main cause of death is ischemic heart disease.