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Background and Objectives: The Emergency Department is the first line of the communication channel between the patient and the patient care system and the main entrance of the patient to the healthcare system. Lack of information and awareness of clients about hospital admission and the type of services provided by treatment centers will cause irreparable consequences. The aim of this study was to determine the causes and demographic features of the patients referred to emergency departments of teaching Hospitals of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. the study conducted on all the patients referred to the triage unit of the emergency wards of Ayatollah Mousavi and Valiasr hospitals during a year. Data collecting tool was the registered individual's information in the triage card from September 1390 to September 2012which included demographic characteristics about the reason of referral to these centers. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical methods.
Results: Among 56493 patients referred to the emergency, 33843 patients were referred to Mousavi center and 22650 patients were referred to the Vali-e-Asr center. Most of the patients referred to Vali-e-Asr center (87.4%) were women with joint and in Mousavi center (75%) were men with respiratory problems.
Conclusion: Collecting the frequency of causes of referrals to Teaching Hospitals will be of great help for people to get awareness of types of services provided in these centers  and  transferring these statistics to the relevant authorities will lead to managing the identification of the types of provided services  in medical centers and upgrading hospital equipment regarding to the high number of referrals to centers in different seasons and hours.