Table 1.

Characteristics of patients transferred to the tertiary center, Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) versus those who were not.

	Non-transferred Patients (n=792)	Transferred Patients (n=96)	p value
Patient Age (years)
Median (IQR)	40 (25–55)	43 (26–59)	0.3
Sex: n (%)
Female	356 (33.4)	35 (31.3)	0.4
Male	526 (32.3)	57 (59.4)
Missing	10 (1.3)	1 (1.0)
Presenting Vital Signs: Mean (SD)
Heart Rate	89 (32)	90 (19)	0.7
Systolic Blood Pressure	126 (17)	124 (17)	0.6
Transferred to SDH: n (%)
Yes	210 (26.5)	32 (33.3)	0.4
If transferred, from where? n (%)
Health Center	149 (72.3)	20 (62.5)	0.07
Private Hospital	49 (23.8)	8 (25.0)
Other	12 (5.7)	4 (12.5)
Common Admission Diagnoses: n (%)
Soft Tissue Infection	306 (38.6)	13 (13.5)	<0.001
Inguinal or Abdominal Hernia	145 (18.3)	12 (12.5)
Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding	109 (13.8)	8 (8.3)
Bowel Obstruction	26 (3.3)	41 (42.7)
Acute Appendicitis	13 (1.6)	2 (2.1)
Acute Abdomen	5 (0.6)	6 (0.8)
Surgery at SDH: n (%)
Yes	392 (49.5)	19 (19.8)	<0.001