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Impact of Viral Seasonal Outbreaks on Crowding and Health Care Quality in Pediatric Emergency Departments

Abstract In pediatric emergency departments (PEDs), seasonal viral outbreaks are believed to be associated with an increase of workload, but no quantification of this impact has been published. A retrospective cross-sectional study aimed to measure this impact on crowding and health care quality in PED. The study was performed in 1 PED for 3 years. Visits related to bronchiolitis, influenza, and gastroenteritis were defined using discharge diagnoses. The daily epidemic load (DEL) was the proportion of visits related to one of these diagnoses. The daily mean of 8 crowding indicators (selected in a published Delphi study) was used. A total of 93,976 children were admitted (bronchiolitis, 2253; influenza, 1277; gastroenteritis, 7678). The mean DEL was 10.4% (maximum, 33.6%). The correlation between the DEL and each indicator was significant. The correlation was stronger for bronchiolitis (Pearson R from 0.171 for number of hospitalization to 0.358 for length of stay). Between the first and fourth quartiles of the DEL, a significant increase, between 50% (patients left without being seen) and 8% (patient physician ratio), of all the indicators was observed. In conclusion, seasonal viral outbreaks have a strong impact on crowding and quality of care. The evolution of “patients left without being seen” between the first and fourth quartiles of DEL could be used as an indicator reflecting the capacity of adaptation of an emergency department to outbreaks.