THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PEDIATRIC VISITS TO NEW-JERSEY GENERAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of pediatric visits to the eme rgency departments (EDs) of 10 general hospitals by age and gender. De sign: Review of ICD-9 codes from the billing database of a practice of emergency physicians. Setting: Ten hospitals in north/central New Jer sey. Patients: All children <18 years treated by group physicians in E Ds of study hospitals. Interventions: None. Main outcome measures: Dia gnoses and visits. Results: There were 319,430 diagnoses recorded for 241,839 children (18.9% of the 1,277,233 total visits by all ages). Th e number of visits was highest in the <2 and >14 years age groups, wit h males predominating in all age groups. The number of visits from tra uma increased with age. Otitis accounted for over 3% of all ED visits in this sample, over 7000 visits. Conclusions: Children account for a significant portion of ED visits in general hospitals. EDs need to be equipped and staffed to handle this clientele.