Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Emergency Department of a tertiary children’s hospital

Table 2 Emergency Department hospital admissions by selected characteristics. Comparison between prepandemic and pandemic periods in the two centres of a tertiary children’s hospital

Emergency Department Hospital Admissions	OPBG Rome							OPBG Palidoro
	Prepandemic Period^a		Pandemic period^a		p-value^#	p-value^&	% Change	Prepandemic Period^a		Pandemic period^a		p-value^#	p-value^&	% Change
	N.	%	N.	%	p-value^#	p-value^&	% Change	N.	%	N.	%	p-value^#	p-value^&	% Change
Total	1788	14.2^b	1359	24.4^b		< 0.001	−47	417	6.4^b	358	10.3^b		< 0.001	−14
Hospitalization Area					0.002							0.024
Medical	701	39.2	571	42.0		< 0.001	−19	192	46.0	130	36.3		< 0.001	−32
Surgical	502	28.1	316	23.3		< 0.001	−37	209	50.1	209	58.4		0.965	0
Oncoematologic	27	1.5	40	2.9		0.250	+ 48	–	–	–	–		–	–
Psychiatric	60	3.4	53	3.9		0.441	−12	–	–	–	–		–	–
Critical	498	27.9	379	27.9		< 0.001	−24	16	3.8	18	5.0		0.968	+ 13
Selected ICD-9 CM Chapter					0.046							0.120
Neoplasms	77	4.3	53	3.9		< 0.05	−31	–	–	–	–		–	–
Blood and Blood Forming Organs	69	3.9	45	3.3		< 0.05	−35	13	3.1	12	0.6		0.974	−8
Mental Disorders	82	4.6	72	5.3		0.359	−12	5	1.2	2	0.6		0.457	−60
Nervous System and Sense Organs	107	6.0	84	6.2		< 0.01	−21	41	9.8	12	4.6		< 0.05	−71
Circularity System	41	2.3	37	2.7		0.589	−10	8	1.9	13	3.6		0.254	+ 63
Respiratory System	317	17.7	165	12.1		< 0.001	−48	112	6.9	86	26.3		0.363	−23
Digestive System	144	8.1	129	9.5		0.383	−10	40	9.6	23	6.4		0.05	−43
Congenital Anomalies	43	2.4	51	3.8		< 0.713	+ 19	5	1.2	3	0.8		0.986	−40
Injury and Poisoning	253	14.1	213	15.7		< 0.05	−16	39	9.4	27	7.5		0.659	−31

^a Prepandemic corresponds to February 21–April 30, 2019 and Pandemic to February 21–April 30, 2020
^b percentage of total Hospital Admissions
# chi-squared test; & t-test comparing differences in mean daily numbers of ED Hospital admissions between the two periods

ISSN: 1824-7288