Observational studyEmergency medicine Australasia : EMA2023
Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department patient volume and flow: Two countries, two hospitals.
Observational study in Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emergency Medical Commander: a multimethod case study applying the lens of Path-Goal leadership theory.BMJ leader · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital-based heart failure care in New South Wales, Australia: a linked data cohort study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Validation of phenomenon and cross-sectional investigation of predictors for a post-COVID-19 surge of osteoporosis outpatients in China.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A Global Review of the Impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Radiology Practice, Finances, and Operations.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesCOVID-19 greatly disrupted the provision of emergency care across the globe. ED service delivery was urgently redesigned as human and material resources were mobilised, and patients with respiratory symptoms were isolated. This study aimed to compare ED patient volume and flow metrics before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsAn observational study was conducted in two large urban EDs in Brisbane, Australia and Seoul, Republic of Korea. Patient volume and flow were quantified using ED presentation numbers and service times, respectively. Daily case numbers, waiting, treatment and admission delay times were compared between 2019 and 2020/2021 using time series plots. Outcomes were further classified by triage category and age group. Trends were examined alongside a timeline of health service and government policies.
resultsThere were reductions in daily presentations for the least urgent triage categories during the early phase of the pandemic. The caseloads for the most urgent triage categories were unaffected. The trends were similar in both EDs. A reduction in waiting and admission delay times but not treatment times coincided with reduced presentations in Brisbane. This pattern gradually reversed as presentations returned to baseline. In Seoul, admission delay times returned to pre-pandemic levels despite a persistent reduction in presentation numbers.
conclusionsTotal daily presentations varied considerably according to government mandated social restrictions and testing requirements in both EDs. The reductions in waiting and admission delay times corresponded with improvements in hospital capacity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.