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dc.creatorJin, Jing
dc.creatorBules, Lauren
dc.creatorDoctor, Kaynan
dc.creatorHendricks, Dorothy
dc.creatorCallaghan, Katherine
dc.creatorReid, Julia E.
dc.creatorSalvin, Jonathan
dc.creatorLehman, Sharon
dc.creatorFasiuddin, Airaj
dc.creatorPiatt, Joseph
dc.date.accessioned2022-08-29T17:20:48Z
dc.date.available2022-08-29T17:20:48Z
dc.date.issued2022-03-24
dc.identifier.citationJin, J.; Bules, L.; Doctor, K.; Hendricks, D.; Callaghan, K.; Reid, J. E, et al. (2022). Visits to the Pediatric Emergency Department for Eye Conditions Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health, 23(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2022.1.53392 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4t91p6g0
dc.identifier.issn1936-900X
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/8067
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/8095
dc.description.abstractIntroduction: The use of the emergency department (ED) has been increasing, and many visits occur for non-urgent conditions. A similar trend was found among adult visits to the ED for ocular conditions. In this study we analyzed the impact of sociodemographic factors, presentation timing, and the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric ED (PED) encounters for ophthalmologic conditions. It is important to identify the multifold factors associated with overutilization of the ED for non-urgent conditions. Caring for these patients in an outpatient clinical setting is safe and effective and could decrease ED crowding; it would also prevent delays in the care of other patients with more urgent medical problems and lower healthcare costs. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed electronic health records of PED ocular-related encounters at two children’s hospitals before (January 2014-May 2018) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020-February 2021). Encounters were categorized based on the International Classification of Diseases codes into “emergent,” “urgent,” and non-urgent” groups. We analyzed associations between sociodemographic factors and degrees of visit urgency. We also compared visit frequencies, degrees of urgency, and diagnoses between pre-pandemic and pandemic data. Results: Pre-pandemic ocular-related PED encounters averaged 1,738 per year. There were highly significant sociodemographic associations with degrees of urgency in PED utilization. During the 12-month pandemic timeframe, encounter frequency contracted to 183. Emergent visits decreased from 21% to 11%, while the proportions of urgent and non-urgent encounters were mostly unchanged. The most common pre-pandemic urgent diagnosis was corneal abrasion (50%), while visual disturbance was most common during the pandemic (92%). During both time periods, eye trauma was the most frequent emergent encounter and conjunctivitis was the most common non-urgent encounter. Conclusion: Sociodemographic factors may be associated with different types of PED utilization for ocular conditions. Unnecessary visits constitute major inefficiency from a healthcare-systems standpoint. The marked decrease in PED utilization and differing proportions of ocular conditions encountered during the pandemic may reflect a decrease in incidence of many of those conditions by social distancing; these changes may also reflect altered parental decisions about seeking care.
dc.format.extent9 pages
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofCOVID-19 Research
dc.relation.haspartWestern Journal of Emergency Medicine: Integrating Emergency Care with Population Health, Vol. 23, No. 3
dc.relation.isreferencedbyUniversity of California
dc.rightsAttribution CC BY
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.titleVisits to the Pediatric Emergency Department for Eye Conditions Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic
dc.typeText
dc.type.genreJournal article
dc.relation.doihttps://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2022.1.53392
dc.ada.noteFor Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu
dc.description.schoolcollegeLewis Katz School of Medicine
dc.temple.creatorBules, Lauren
refterms.dateFOA2022-08-29T17:20:48Z


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