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. 2022 Jul 4;9(7):1003.
doi: 10.3390/children9071003.

A Comparison of Emergency Department Revisit Rates of Pediatric Patients between Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Periods

Myeong Namgung  1 , Dong Hoon Lee  2 , Sung Jin Bae  2 , Ho Sub Chung  2 , Ji Young Park  3 , Keon Kim  4 , Choung Ah Lee  5 , Duk Ho Kim  6 , Eui Chung Kim  7 , Jee Yong Lim  8 , Sang Soo Han  9 , Yoon Hee Choi  10
Affiliations

A Comparison of Emergency Department Revisit Rates of Pediatric Patients between Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Periods

Myeong Namgung et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Unscheduled revisits to emergency departments (EDs) are important because they indicate the quality of emergency care. However, the characteristics of pediatric patients visiting EDs changed during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and these changes may have affected their revisit patterns. Therefore, we aimed to compare the ED revisit patterns of pediatric patients between the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. This retrospective multicenter study included patients aged below 18 years who visited the ED in the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. ED revisit rates were analyzed using five age groups and three visit-revisit intervals. In the pre-COVID-19 period, the revisit rates decreased with increasing age. In the COVID-19 period, the revisit rates were the lowest for the group aged 4-6 years, and the rates increased for those aged ≥7 years. In conclusion, there were changes in the patterns of revisit rates of pediatric patients according to age between the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the reasons for revisits according to age and establish strategies to reduce the revisit rates of pediatric patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; pediatric patients; revisit to emergency department.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of patients enrolled in the pre-COVID-19 period (A) and in the COVID-19 period (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Revisit rates during the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods based on five age groups.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Reduction rates of index visits and revisits.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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