Abstract
Background
The purpose of this study was to examine the common illnesses and injuries that were sustained at a local resident camp.
Objective
To identify areas of potential improvement and to make recommendations to increase the quality and preparedness of health services at resident camps.
Methods
We used an observational study design to retrospectively analyze health center logbooks of a resident camp. The logbooks included every visit to the health center and details about each visit, such as the reason for visit, examination findings, treatment, and disposition. If a patient’s injury or illness involved multiple visits or rechecks, the subsequent visits were marked as “recheck,” but were given a new study identification number. The study population was from a Boy Scout camp in central Missouri from the summers of 2012 and 2013. Camp staff, youth and adult campers, visitors, and employees were included in the study population if they were seen in the health center. The logbook data were extracted into a digital database and placed into categories based on the reason for the visit, treatments, and dispositions.
Results
In all, 1586 patients were seen at the health center during the 2-year study; 67.0% were seen for an illness and 18.2% were seen for an injury. For 91.1% of the patients, it was considered safe to return to camp, whereas 7.3% needed transfer to another facility and 0.9% were sent home. The most common reason for transfer was for radiologic imaging (35.7% of all those who were transferred). The most common treatments were oral rehydration, oral medications, and topical creams. It was also found that relationships with emergency medical services and hospitals had room for improvement in the provision of health services.
Conclusions
We developed recommendations to increase efficiency and health outcomes by improving the available supplies and developing relationships with local emergency medical services and hospitals.