Does a cold rainy day keep the patients away?

Summary 

Objective

To explore the relationship between the number of patients presenting to the Emergency Department and the weather. To determine if the number of non-urgent cases presenting to the ED is affected by the weather.

Methods

Retrospective review of all presentations to the ED of a tertiary referral hospital in the south-west of Sydney, Australia over a 1year period. Total daily numbers of patient presentations and their triage acuity were correlated with temperature, rainfall, day of the week and the absence or presence of a Public holiday.

Results

During the study period 46,903 patients presented to the ED with an average of 128.5 patients a day. Rainfall occurred on 135days. There was a positive correlation between day of the week (P<0.001) and the presence of a public holiday (P<0.001) on ED attendances. Increasing maximum daily temperature was also associated with a rise in ED presentations (P=0.04). Daily rainfall did not significantly influence ED attendance numbers (P=0.07). The presence of a Public holiday was the only significant variable affecting the numbers of non-urgent presentations (P=0.003).

Conclusions

Meteorological factors such as rainfall and temperature impact minimally on ED attendances. Day of the week and Public holidays are more important variables impacting on total ED workload and resource planning should be guided by this.

Keywords: Rainfall, Temperature, Emergency department presentations