Morbidity diagnosed in an internal medicine department of a secondary care center (Msaken, Sousse, Tunisia).

Internal Medicine is an essential component of the clinical platform of regional hospitals (relay between district hospitals and reference university hospitals). To describe the morbidity diagnosed at Medicine department of the regional hospital of Msaken (Sousse, Tunisia), taken as a tracer of intermediate hospitals. This descriptive study covered all of the patients hospitalized, during the year 2015, in the Internal Medicine department of the Msaken regional hospital. The data were disseminated through a "Minimum Clinical Summary". Morbidity was classified according to ICD-10. Hospital readmission was tested with reference to <28 days. A total of 594 patients were hospitalized in Internal Medicine, with a sex ratio of 0.95 and a median age of 67 years [54-78]. "Diseases of the respiratory system" were the first category of diagnosed morbidity (58%), dominated by acute bronchitis, followed by "endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases" in women (including insulin-dependent diabetes) and category of infectious diseases in men (including erysipelas). The former patients of the service (49%) were twice as numerous among people ≥60 years old (57% vs 30% in those under 60 years). The readmission rate was 19% (29% for men versus 8% for women). The mean length of stay was 7 ± 5.7 days. The transfer rates and hospital mortality were 11.3% and 1.2%, respectively. The morbidity diagnosed at the Internal Medicine department of the Msaken regional hospital was dominated by the triad: acute bronchitis, diabetes mellitus and erysipelas, particularly in the elderly. Hence the need to strengthen the training of future family doctors in pulmonology, diabetology and infectious diseases.