Detection and registration of alcohol use in the emergency department

OBJECTIVE: Due to the high economic and morbimortality burden associated to alcohol use, in the last decades, public health services have developed several programs to detect and to intervene on at risk drinkers in primary care settings and emergency departments (ED). The aim of this study is to determine the proportion of detected and registered risky drinkers in an ED of Hospital Clinic de Barcelona. METODOS: Se incluyeron todos los pacientes con un consumo de riesgo de alcohol, mayores de 18 anos, atendidos en un servicio de Urgencias del Hospital Clinic de Barcelona. Se realizo un analisis descriptivo de los datos, tras evaluar los informes de alta de los pacientes. RESULTS: We detected 247 risky drinkers after assessing more than 2,047 patients with AUDIT-C scale. From these, 200 accepted to participate. Only 65 (32.5%) of these patients were properly detected and registered as risky drinkers, while the majority of them (122, 61%) had no record about their alcohol use in their clinical records. CONCLUSIONES: El consumo de riesgo de alcohol se registra de manera adecuada en menos del 35% de los pacientes. Es necesario evaluar las barreras que estan obstaculizando la deteccion y registro para una mejor identificacion de estos pacientes.