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@#BACKGROUND: Emergency medical service system (EMSS) is essential in providing acute care services for health conditions. However, trends of emergency and acute care in China haven’t been studied systematically. METHODS: Relevant literature was carefully reviewed, including original and review articles, letters, government reports, yearbooks, both in Chinese and in English. Data on the number of emergency visits, physicians and beds in emergency departments (EDs), and the workforce of pre-hospital emergency care were summarized and analyzed from China Health and Family Planning Statistical Yearbooks (2006-2018). RESULTS: Over the past decade, the number of ED visits tripled from 51.9 million to 166.5 million; and utilization of pre-hospital emergency care increased from 3.2 million to 6.8 million. In response to rapid increases in demand, the number of licensed emergency physicians raised from 20,058 to 59,409; the beds’ number increased from 10,783 to 42,367. For pre-hospital emergency care, the volume of health workforce increased from 3,687 to 8,671, with a 109% increase in the number of physicians from 1,774 to 3,712. However, overcrowding, the long length of stay in EDs, poor work environment, and work exhaustion were still the critical challenges faced by China’s EMSS. CONCLUSIONS: The number of emergency visits has grown with continual capability enhancement during the past decade. However, overcrowding, the long length of stay in EDs, poor work environment, and work exhaustion still need to be solved by China’s EMSS. These findings and comparison with the USA could offer experiences and lessons to EMSS development worldwide, especially for developing countries.
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Objective@#To explore the effect of fine particulate matters (PM2.5) exposure on emergency visits and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from 2013 to 2015.@*Methods@#Using convenient sampling method, 5 general hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were selected which included Beijing hospital, China-Japan friendship hospital, Xinhua hospital affiliated to Shanghai jiaotong University School of Medicine, the liwan hospital of the third affiliated hospital and the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. The emergency and outpatient data, air pollution monitoring data and meteorological data were collected from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015. A generalized additive model was used to analyze the effect of PM2.5 exposure on daily hospital emergency and outpatient visits, and Meta analysis was used to obtain the combined effect value.@*Results@#The number of emergency and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals was 1 378 501 and 18 139 779 in total, respectively. The mean±SD of PM2.5 exposures in Beijing hospital, China-Japan friendship hospital, Xinhua hospital affiliated to Shanghai jiaotong University School of Medicine, the liwan hospital of the third affiliated hospital and the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou Medical University were (81.8±68.7), (83.2±69.7), (54.4±34.1), (43.5±24.8) μg/m3, respectively. Results of single pollutant model analysis showed that 0-1 day lag concentrations of PM2.5 had the largest effect on emergency visits and outpatient visits. For a 10 μg/m3 increase of PM2.5 concentration, excess risk (ER) (95%CI) of emergency and outpatient visits was 0.56% (0.14%, 0.99%) and0.63% (0.07%, 1.19%), respectively. After adjusting for O3, NO2, SO2, and CO, for a 10 μg/m3 increase of PM2.5 concentrations, the ER (95%CI) of emergency visits was 0.50% (0.10%, 0.90%), 0.34% (-0.02%, 0.69%), 0.36% (0.02%, 0.69%) and 0.56% (0.10%, 1.03%), respectively and the ER (95% CI) of outpatient visits was 0.65% (0.08%, 1.21%), 0.29% (-0.17%, 0.75%), 0.48% (-0.06%, 1.03%) and 0.48%(-0.02%, 0.99%), respectively.@*Conclusion@#Our results suggested that PM2.5 exposure can increase emergency and outpatient visits of 5 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
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Objective To identify the changes of outpatients/emergency visits at Nanjing Children′s Hospital since introduction of the general pricing reform at public hospitals.Methods Fluctuations of outpatients/emergency visits at Nanjing Children′s Hospital before and after the reform in 2015 were compared,and an empirical analysis was made in view of the overall structural changes,demand price elasticity and cross-price elasticity of various outpatients/emergency visits.Results The change of total outpatients/emergency visits was minimal,yet the composition registered significant changes.Monthly average of common outpatients totaled 7 072 visits,a growth of 12.6%;that of senior specialists totaled 3 035 visits,a growth of 48.4%.The price elasticity was<1,while the demand for various outpatients/emergency visits services and cross-price elasticity appeared inelastic.Conclusions The one year reform has witnessed the hospital in smooth operations as yet.Given the sizable rise of examination prices for both outpatients/emergency visits,patient volume remains stable instead of drastic decrease,evidencing the strong demand for children′s medical services.
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PURPOSE: The aim of the present study is to assess the importance of proper treatment timing for dental emergency patients by characterizing current patient care in the emergency room. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective chart review of 3,211 patients who visited the Chosun University Hospital's dental emergency department (Gwangju, Korea) was conducted from January 1, 2011 to May 31, 2014. Information regarding age, gender, onset date, main causes, and diagnoses were collected and analyzed. The main causes were divided into six categories: assault, household/play, sports, traffic, work, and others. RESULT: Emergency visits were more common for men (69%), and the ratio of males to females was 2.2:1 On average, the major cause was household/play (49.8%), followed by others (18.9%), traffic (16.6%), assault (9.1%), sports (2.9%), and work (2.6%). The most frequent diagnosis on average was dental trauma with 82.4%, followed by infection (10.7%), others (4.7%), and bleeding (2.2%). CONCLUSION: The main reasons for visits to the dental emergency department are dental trauma, dental infection, bleeding, and others. The most frequent reason for dental emergency patients to visit the emergency department was dental trauma (82.4%).