Background:: Dermato-venereology, a highly ranked medical specialty, is one of the top five career choices of medical school graduates in Romania. This specialty includes a vast palette of pathologies and is confronted with various types of emergencies. Health care policy makers refuse to acknowledge such cases and frame dermatology as an exclusive out-patient specialty. Over the past years, in Romania and other European countries, the health care system in Dermato-venereology has suffered important administrative changes. Our aim was to study the behavior and medical road map of patients with severe dermatological disorders throughout these changes.
Materials and Methods:: A retrospective, analytical, comparative study was conducted in a University Department of Dermato-venereology which analyzed the medical activity in two different time periods, February-June 2011 (T1) and February-June 2015 (T2). Data were collected from the Dermatology Consultation Room’s registry book of the Hospital archive and was analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel 2010.
Outcomes:: During T1 there were 696 emergency cases, whereas in T2 the administrative changes and relocation of the Dermatology Department impeded patients’ access and therefore, the total number of emergencies dropped to 163. The most frequent pathologies were urticaria and angioedema. There was also an increase in the number of pediatric patients throughout these time periods.
Conclusions:: Administrative changes in state owned hospitals from Romania resulted in a significant decrease in the total number of patients accessing the dermatological units, with immediate effects on the diminishing specialized cutaneous care and long term effects on medical teaching.