One Day in Emergency 2.0: An epidemiological snapshot across 6
Australian Emergency Departments

The One Day in Emergency 2.0 study was a study based on the original One Day in Emergency study, exploring the demographic details and presenting complaints in the ED over a 24 hour period. Unlike the previous study, however, this study looked at admissions within all hospitals of the South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD). The study was conducted to collect epidemiological details such as presenting complaint, ED length of stay and other time-stamped administrative events.

Across all 6 EDs in consideration, patient data was collected from eMR FirstNet and linked with non-electronic sources. These findings were then used as the basis for a health economic analysis to determine the costs associated with delay to discharge. Among the presenting complaints, abdominal pain was frequently among the top 3 presenting complaints. During this 24-hour period, we estimate that across the 3 largest hospitals, the cost associated with delays to discharge were in the order of $18,000 AUD.

This study conducted on a total cohort of 831 patients built on the findings in the One Day in Emergency 1.0 study. In particular, this study was aimed at interdepartmental variations in epidemiology, rather than across a single ED as the first study was. We believe that extended analysis in a single local health district provides a more cross-sectional picture of health in the community. We believe that methods used in this study could be of potential utility in the future with more diverse populations.

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