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. 2022 Feb 28:2022:7580546.
doi: 10.1155/2022/7580546. eCollection 2022.

Nonurgent Visits to the Pediatric Emergency Department before and during the First Peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Laura Guckert  1 , Heiko Reutter  2 , Nadia Saleh  1 , Rainer Ganschow  1 , Andreas Müller  3 , Fabian Ebach  3
Affiliations

Nonurgent Visits to the Pediatric Emergency Department before and during the First Peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Laura Guckert et al. Int J Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Nonurgent visits in pediatric Emergency Departments are a growing burden. In order to find predictors for those nonurgent visits, we performed a retrospective analysis of unscheduled visits at the Pediatric Emergency Department of the University Hospital of Bonn, Germany, in the year 2017. Additionally, we compared these findings to unscheduled visits during the first peak of the worldwide pandemic of the Coronavirus disease 2019, to see if there would be an effect on nonurgent pediatric Emergency Department attendances.

Methods: For our retrospective cohort study, we analyzed more than 5.000 visits at the pediatric Emergency Department of the University Hospital of Bonn, Germany, before and during the first peak of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the Coronavirus disease 2019, particularly with regard to their urgency. Data included gender, age, zip code, urgency, and preexisting conditions.

Results: Our study shows that more than half of unscheduled pediatric Emergency Department visits (69%) at the University Hospital in Bonn are for nonurgent reasons, with short living distance being a factor to present children to a pediatric Emergency Department, even with minor complaints. During the first peak of the pandemic of the Coronavirus disease 2019, nonurgent visits decreased significantly, potentially due to hesitation to attend a pediatric Emergency Department with minor issues, fearing an infection with SARS-CoV-2 at the hospital.

Conclusion: Many people use pediatric Emergency Departments for nonemergency complaints. In order to address the reasons for nonurgent visits to pediatric Emergency Departments and to prevent parents from doing so, further studies and targeted education concepts for parents are needed.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interests to disclose, including financial disclosures.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of patients per zip code area and distance to pediatric ED (∗) in the year 2017 (Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Linear distance to the pediatric ED for urgent and nonurgent visits in 2017.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Age distribution in urgent and nonurgent visits in 2017.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Seasonal comparison between urgent and nonurgent visits in 2017.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Nonurgent and urgent visits to the pediatric ED and (b) preliminary diagnoses in March and April 2017, respectively, compared to March and April 2020 (first peak of COVID-19 pandemic).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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