Volume and Acuity of Emergency Department Visits Prior To and After COVID-19.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There are scant data regarding the change in volume and acuity of patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs) after Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), compared with the pre-COVID-19 era.

Objective

To determine ED volumes and triage acuity prior to and after COVID-19.

Methods

We determined the volume of patients presenting to four large EDs affiliated with general, cardiac, cancer, and obstetrics hospitals, and the acuity of presenting illness (using the Canadian Triage Acuity Scale [CTAS]) for March and April 2020 and compared them with the same months in 2019 and January 2020. Together, these facilities see over 80% of the ED visits in Qatar. The first COVID-19 patient in Qatar was diagnosed on February 29, 2020.

Results

A total of 192,157

SUBMITTER: Butt AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7413056 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature