Our study aims at assessing whether the food safety campaign
has led to a significant change in the number of patients presenting to the ED
or in the medical expenses spent treating gastroenteritis and its
complications.
To test our hypothesis we will
resort to a retrospective, before after,
single-center study of all patients that presented to the Emergency Department
at The American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) with a DISCHARGE
DIAGNOSIS of abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, food poisoning, gastritis and
gastroenteritis. We will include patients with the above discharge diagnosis
seen in the Emergency Department between September 1st 2013 and December 31, 2015.
The study population will include
all patients who were seen in the Emergency Department during the study period
and had a discharge diagnosis of abdominal pain,
diarrhea, vomiting, food poisoning, gastritis or gastroenteritis
Retrospective chart
review and a before after study comparing two time periods.
Patients
of all age groups who were seen in the ED during the study period and had a discharge diagnosis of abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting,
food poisoning, gastritis or gastroenteritis between September
1, 2013 and December 31, 2015.
Patients with missing charts will
be excluded from the study.