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Anatomy of a demand shock: Quantitative analysis of crowding in hospital emergency departments in Victoria, Australia during the 2009 influenza pandemic

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  • Peter Sivey
  • Richard McAllister
  • Hassan Vally
  • Anna Burgess
  • Anne-Maree Kelly

Abstract

Objective: An infectious disease outbreak such as the 2009 influenza pandemic is an unexpected demand shock to hospital emergency departments (EDs). We analysed changes in key performance metrics in (EDs) in Victoria during this pandemic to assess the impact of this demand shock. Design and setting: Descriptive time-series analysis and longitudinal regression analysis of data from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) using data from the 38 EDs that submit data to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. Main outcome measures: Daily number of presentations, influenza-like-illness (ILI) presentations, daily mean waiting time (time to first being seen by a doctor), daily number of patients who did-not-wait and daily number of access-blocked patients (admitted patients with length of stay >8 hours) at a system and hospital-level. Results: During the influenza pandemic, mean waiting time increased by up to 25%, access block increased by 32% and did not wait presentations increased by 69% above pre-pandemic levels. The peaks of all three crowding variables corresponded approximately to the peak in admitted ILI presentations. Longitudinal fixed-effects regression analysis estimated positive and statistically significant associations between mean waiting times, did not wait presentations and access block and ILI presentations. Conclusions: This pandemic event caused excess demand leading to increased waiting times, did-not-wait patients and access block. Increases in admitted patients were more strongly associated with crowding than non-admitted patients during the pandemic period, so policies to divert or mitigate low-complexity non-admitted patients are unlikely to be effective in reducing ED crowding.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Sivey & Richard McAllister & Hassan Vally & Anna Burgess & Anne-Maree Kelly, 2019. "Anatomy of a demand shock: Quantitative analysis of crowding in hospital emergency departments in Victoria, Australia during the 2009 influenza pandemic," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-11, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0222851
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222851
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    2. Krystal Lau & Katharina Hauck & Marisa Miraldo, 2019. "Excess influenza hospital admissions and costs due to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in England," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 175-188, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. McQuestin, Dana & Noguchi, Masayoshi, 2020. "Worth the wait: The impact of government funding on hospital emergency waiting times," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(12), pages 1340-1344.

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