Evaluation of immigrant health services in Turkey: a single-center study

Background/aim The aim of this study was to present the immigrant health services of Turkey within a general framework, and to evaluate the health services provided by a single center that offers tertiary health services as an important reference hospital in Turkey in the framework of immigrant health services and the direct costs of these services. Subject and methods This is a retrospective and descriptive observational study in which the development of immigrant health services in Turkey was evaluated and the records of the immigrant health services kept by the related center’s International Guest Patient Unit between the years of 2014 and 2018 were reviewed. Results The number of individual immigrant patients applying to our center was 30,480, and their total application number was 89,203. A total of 84,781 (95%) of the applications were outpatient and 4422 were (5%) inpatient. The most common diagnosis according to the ICD-10 system was other general symptoms and signs (R68.8). The cost per outpatient was calculated as 85TL, while the cost per inpatient was calculated as 4945TL, all covered by the Government of Turkey. Conclusion It was observed that immigrants most frequently applied to the emergency services of this center and were mostly admitted to the general surgery clinic. When the most frequent diagnoses in this study were evaluated, it was seen that the health problems of these immigrants can usually be solved with primary health services. Increasing the utilization of primary health services for immigrants will prevent the unnecessary usage of emergency services as well as being more cost-efficient.