impact of ramadan on emergency department patients flow; a cross-sectional study in uae

Introduction: ramadan, the ninth month of the islamic lunar calendar, is, to muslims, the holiest month of the year. during this month, young, able-bodied muslims are commanded to abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. objective: the objective of the study is to analyze emergency department (ed) patients flow during the holy month of ramadan and compare it to non-ramadan days. we hypothesized that ramadan would affect ed attendance by altering peak hours, and expected a dip in attendance around evening time (after sunset). methods: in abu dhabi, united arab emirates, a retrospective study was conducted at a tertiary hospital (2014-2016). the data was strategically separated and patient presence was analyzed year-wise, weekday basis and based on the hourly presence of the patients in the ed of the chosen hospital. results: a total of 45,116 ed’s patient visits were analyzed over the mentioned study period. there was a difference in the total volume of ramadan and non-ramadan patient between the years 2014-2016. in all of the years, the highest percentage of visits was during the non-ramadan days and this had a small fluctuation from 53% in 2014 to 52% in 2016 (p=0.001). it was observed from the collected data that 53% of the patients were present in the hospital during the fasting hours whereas 47% were present during the non-fasting hours (p<0.001). conclusion: we were successfully able to derive a pattern from the data of 3 years in relation to the patient flow in the ed of the hospital. moreover, we observed the difference in the patient arrival pattern between the ramadan and non-ramadan days in the hospital along with the predominant categorization of patient chief complaints. our study identified a unique pattern of ed hourly visits during ramadan.