determination of emergency department patient utilization and staffing at the university of the philippines-philippine general hospital (up-pgh)

Objective: in developing staffing plans for emergency departments (eds), a multifaceted approach must be considered without compromising quality of care, patient safety and personnel satisfaction. this study aims to determine the temporal trend of patient attendance and staffing in a major tertiary hospital ed to assist in establishing an optimal staffing pattern. methods: a 1-year retrospective ed census review of adult patients at the university of the philippines-philippine general hospital (up-pgh) was undertaken. one-way analysis of variance (anova) with post hoc fisher-hayter pairwise comparisons were utilized to determine if the ed consults and admissions were significantly (p<0.05) associated with the month of the year and day of the week. results: a total 43,632 consults at the up-pgh ed, averaging of 3,636 per month or 121 per day, were seen in 2019. results indicated statistically significant differences between monthly [f (11,353) =16.45; p<0.0001] and between daily means [f (6,358) =4.19; p=0.0004]. the most number of consults occur during august, september, october and november while admissions were highest during april and october. it was busiest during mondays and afternoon shifts (1400-2200 hours) with majority arriving as urgent in acuity. mortality was also highest during the afternoon shifts. conclusion: the temporal variations in patient visits and acuity described in our study can be used as a template for workforce scheduling and resource allocation to meet the demands in the provision of care at the ed.