In a cohort study of more than 2.7 million emergency department (ED) visits published in JAMA Network Open, researchers found long wait times and lengths of stay were common at children’s hospitals during the 2022 surge of viral respiratory illnesses. They studied visits across 25 EDs from September 1 to December 31, 2022, including 301,688 pediatric visits for viral and respiratory illness, such as COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus. The experience during this time period at children’s hospitals demonstrated that 8% of visits had what the authors label as “prolonged wait times,” which are wait times longer than 4 hours. Meanwhile, 8.6% of the visits to children’s hospitals also had “prolonged lengths of stay,” in which the patient’s time from arrival to departure was longer than 12 hours.
The logic behind longer wait times: “Because visits for pediatric viral and respiratory illness comprise much of their overall care, children’s hospitals may be especially susceptible to viral illness surges among children, while ED operations at other sites may not be as sensitive to shifting pediatric care demands,” the authors wrote.