[Short-Stay Medical Unit, an alternative to conventional hospitalization]. / Unidad Médica de Corta Estancia, una alternativa a la hospitalización convencional.

BACKGROUND: The Short-Stay Medical Unit (SSMU) is an alternative to conventional hospitalization. This study has aimed to analyze the evolution of admissions and duration of stay in a SSMU, to outline the characteristics of the patients while studying their relationship to length of time spent in the unit and their destination on discharge as well as to assess how appropriately their cases were resolved. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A descriptive study was carried out (2000-2005), analyzing their age, sex, destination on discharge and main diagnosis as well as the evolution of admissions and length of stay over this period. In order to determine how appropriately each case was resolved, length of stay and destination on discharge were considered. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program. RESULTS: During the study period there was an increase in the number of admissions and in length of stay. The average age of the 7,618 patients was 70.6 +/- 16.9 years and the average stay 2.7 +/- 1.4 days. One of the most frequent diagnoses was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (15.9%). On discharge, 85.9% of patients were sent home. A total of 76.4% of cases were resolved satisfactorily, with significant statistical differences related to age, diagnosis and number of diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: A progressive increase in admissions and length of stay was observed. Ninety percent of the cases of the younger patients were resolved satisfactorily, this decreasing to 72% for older patients. The number of diagnoses, specific diagnoses and age caused some difficulty in reaching an appropriate resolution.

[Pilot study of the evaluation of the nutritional status in a population sample in a health area]. / Estudio piloto de valoración del estado nutricional en una muestra de población de una zona de salud.

We report the evaluation of a pilot study for the nutritional state carried out at a Health Center in Murcia, using a qualitative foodstuff questionnaire related to the previous 24 hours and the evaluation of anthropometric and analytical data. The evaluated individuals were randomly selected between the persons who had previously consulted. The survey was carried out by an interviewer. An outstanding result was that 90% of the surveyed individuals had ingested, at least one foodstuff from each group. The fat compartment was measured through the tricipital and subscapular fold and Quetelet index, and the protein compartment was measured through the muscular area of the arm. As reference values, the NHANES (USA) and the Alastrue Vidal (Spain) tables were used. It was found that the tricipital fold of the investigated population was underrated in the american tables (p less than 0.01).