[Demand for care in the emergency service department of a pediatric hospital].
We have done a prospective study of the emergencies that arrived to a Children's Hospital from 8 to 15 hours in labour day 987 enquires were filled, which represents 53.53% of those who came. Males were predominant and also the younger ones with 24.58% less than 1 year of age, and progressively diminishing with age. Frequency was higher on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, with a significant reduction on Tuesdays. The hourly distribution demonstrated an accumulation in the intermediate hours in the morning, with a reduction before 10 and after 14 hours. 83.58% arrived due to personal initiative, and 22.28% of them had been with their pediatrician in the previous 48 hours. 3.64% of patients were admitted to hospital; considering a justified reason for hospital emergency care in 14.69% of the cases, and dubious reasons in 16.61%. The socioeconomic status was slightly higher than that of the Madrid Community in which the hospital is situated. Our data show that the majority of children that come to the emergency department present problems that could have been solved in another level of care. We also found indirect signs, may evidentiate that the family members are conscious in many cases that they are making an unjustified use of this level of care.