Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://ahro.austin.org.au/austinjspui/handle/1/10050
Title: Weather patients will come?
Austin Authors: Ou, Daniel K B;To, The-Phung ;Taylor, David McD 
Affiliation: Austin Health, PO Box 5555, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Australia
Issue Date: 6-Dec-2005
Publication information: Medical Journal of Australia; 183(11-12): 675-7
Abstract: To determine whether weather conditions affect emergency department (ED) attendance and admissions from the ED.A retrospective observational study in a large metropolitan ED.ED attendance (total and via ambulance) and admissions to hospital from ED, as a function of weather variables.On warm, dry, sunny and good weather days there were significantly more ED attendances in total than there were on cool, rainy, dull and bad weather days, respectively (P < or = 0.001). There were significant correlations between ED attendance and temperature (r = 0.36, P < 0.001), rainfall (r = - 0.20, P < 0.001) and hours of sunshine (r = 0.17, P = 0.001). Attendance via ambulance was not affected by weather variables. Admissions from the ED were positively correlated with temperature (r = 0.15, P < 0.01) and negatively correlated with rainfall (r = - 0.12, P = 0.02).As there is a clear relationship between weather conditions and ED attendance, incorporating meteorological forecasting into emergency medicine training may improve ED scheduling. To improve the morale of ED staff coping with an onslaught of patients on good weather days, the ED environment should simulate sunny weather, with swimming pools, sun lamps, palm trees and Beach Boys music.
Gov't Doc #: 16336172
URI: https://ahro.austin.org.au/austinjspui/handle/1/10050
Journal: Medical Journal of Australia
URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16336172
Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Australia
Emergency Service, Hospital.utilization
Hospitals, Urban
Humans
Patient Admission.statistics & numerical data
Retrospective Studies
Seasons
Weather
Appears in Collections:Journal articles

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