Analysis of severe foreign patients transported to our emergency department

Abstract

In FY 2017, 28.69 million foreign tourists visited Japan. We have to establish a medical system for foreign travelers because the Tokyo Olympics will be held soon in Japan. Tokyo Medical University Hospital is a facility where only critically ill patients are transported, among which many foreign patients are transported. Therefore, we aimed to determine medical problems and trends in 87 patients with severe foreign patients, including foreign tourists in Japan. The gender ratio was 2:1. By nationality Asians were 74%. Chinese were the largest at 33%. The patients to need an interpretation was 54%. The patients to need a hospitalization was 51%. As an admission diagnosis, cardiopulmonary arrest was the most frequent, 25%. The unpaid patients for medical expenses reached 14.9%. As difficulties in medical practice, it was often difficult to cooperate with other organizations such as the embassy and international transportation service, but there were few cases that had difficulties in language and cultural issues. It was found that there were few specialists among the interpreters, and that severe foreign patients were being treated at high medical safety risks.