BACKGROUND: Hospitals in countries with public health systems have recently adopted organizational changes to improve efficiency and resource allocation, and reducing inappropriate hospitalizations has been established as an important goal. AIMS: Our goal was to describe the functioning of a Quick Diagnosis Unit in a Spanish public university hospital after evaluating 1,000 consecutive patients. We also aimed to ascertain the degree of satisfaction among Quick Diagnosis Unit patients and the costs of the model compared to conventional hospitalization practices. DESIGN: Observational, descriptive study. METHODS: Our sample comprised 1,000 patients evaluated between November 2008 and January 2010 in the Quick Diagnosis Unit of a tertiary university public hospital in Barcelona. Included patients were those who had potentially severe diseases and would normally require hospital admission for diagnosis but whose general condition allowed outpatient treatment. We analyzed several variables, including time to diagnosis, final diagnoses and hospitalizations avoided, and we also investigated the mean cost (as compared to conventional hospitalization) and the patients' satisfaction. RESULTS: In 88% of cases, the reasons for consultation were anemia, anorexia-cachexia syndrome, febrile syndrome, adenopathies, abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea and lung abnormalities. The most frequent diagnoses were cancer (18.8%; mainly colon cancer and lymphoma) and Iron-deficiency anemia (18%). The mean time to diagnosis was 9.2 days (range 1 to 19 days). An estimated 12.5 admissions/day in a one-year period (in the internal medicine department) were avoided. In a subgroup analysis, the mean cost per process (admission-discharge) for a conventional hospitalization was 3,416.13 Euros, while it was 735.65 Euros in the Quick Diagnosis Unit. Patients expressed a high degree of satisfaction with Quick Diagnosis Unit care. CONCLUSIONS: Quick Diagnosis Units represent a useful and cost-saving model for the diagnostic study of patients with potentially severe diseases. Future randomized study designs involving comparisons between controls and intervention groups would help elucidate the usefulness of Quick Diagnosis Units as an alternative to conventional hospitalization.

The amniotic fluid embolism is an uncommon condition with a high mortality. The cardinal symptoms are hypoxia, hypotension, altered mental status and disseminated intravascular coagulation. This syndrome occurs during delivery or in the immediate postpartum period, and its onset in the late postpartum is very unusual. We describe a case of a primigravida who, after an uneventful delivery, suffers an acute respiratory failure in the late postpartum period. Exclusion of other causes of acute respiratory failure occurring during delivery or in the postpartum period led to establish the diagnosis.

La embolia de líquido amniótico es un síndrome poco frecuente, y a menudo fatal, cuyas principales manifestaciones clínicas son la hipoxia, la hipotensión, la alteración del estado de consciencia y la coagulación intravascular diseminada. Tiene lugar durante el parto o en el posparto inmediato, siendo excepcional su aparición en el posparto tardío. Presentamos el caso de una primigrávida que tras un parto sin complicaciones desarrolla un cuadro de insuficiencia respiratoria aguda en el posparto tardío. La exclusión de otras causas de insuficiencia respiratoria aguda durante el parto y posparto permitió establecer el diagnóstico.