Abstract
Objective: It is aimed to examine the numerical change in the emergency department patient admissions of a third-level hospital on public holidays and to offer solutions to the overcrowding in the emergency department with these data.
Material and Methods: The records of patients who were admitted to the emergency department between 01.01.2015 and 31.12.2018 were analyzed retrospectively. The age, gender, admission date data of the patients during the study period were recorded and compared by determining the official holidays and other working days.
Results: During the specified date range, 543,138 patient admissions were made, and 52% of them were men. The mean age of the patients was 41 years. August (10.2%) was the month with the highest number of patient admissions; Monday (15.5%) was the day with the highest number of patient admissions. It was observed that the admissions were mostly in the 12:00-18:00 time zone (33.6%). In the emergency department, where the average number of patients per day was 366, an average of 503 patients admissions were made on public holidays on weekdays (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Emergency department patient density exhibits temporal differences. Emergency department applications show a significant increase during public holidays that coincide with weekdays.