Emergencies can happen anytime, but emergency department utilization varies by time of day and season of the year. WSHA’s Analysis of the Month for August looks at some of these patterns and what they mean for your hospital. This analysis was performed using the DASH Premium Emergency Department Explorer.
Prospective payment system (PPS) hospitals, regardless of size, consistently see 64% of their patients during the day (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and off-campus emergency departments and critical access hospitals see even more patients during the day, with 68% patients seeking care during that time. Summer months see the highest rates of after-hours visits (6 p.m. to 6 a.m.), though the overall number of after-hours visits has declined over the last few years.
Severity of patient conditions is also highest during the day, though waiting times and treatment takes longer when patients arrive overnight. See the full analysis for more details.
These takeaways may prove helpful in emergency department staffing and understanding how patient arrivals impact patient flow through the hospital. WSHA’s Data Analytics team and I are happy to discuss these results further with hospital members.
Sincerely,
Sheridan Murphy
WSHA Data Engineer
sheridanm@wsha.org
