Quality of Emergency Room care during theisrael doctors' strike

Abstract

A sample of Emergency Room (E.R.) charts from the Emergency Department of Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, was examined for the period of the 1983 Israel doctors' strike and from an appropriate control period in 1982. For the control period, essential chart items-presenting complaint, description of physical findings and diagnoses-were recorded on 95, 89 and 86% of charts, respectively, and treatment prescribed appeared on 65%. There were no major differences in the recording of these items between strike and control periods and, to the extent that chart quality reflects quality of care, no evidence was found that E.R. care was adversely affected by the strike despite a 35% increase in patient load.