title: Effect of the SARS outbreak on visits to a community hospital emergency department.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on visits to a community hospital emergency department (ED) during the early stage of the Toronto outbreak in 2003 and for the same period in 2004. We focused on visits for respiratory illness (SARS-like symptoms) and different age groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a retrospective review of ED discharge diagnoses obtained from a computerized database, examining the 4-week period starting March 28 for the years 2001-2004. We obtained the discharge diagnosis, age and visit date for each ED patient during the relevant time intervals, then compared visit data from 2003 and 2004 with a baseline derived from the average number of visits during 2001 and 2002. We constructed groupings based on age and respiratory-illness symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the SARS outbreak in 2003, ED visits declined by 21% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18%-24%) over the 4-week study period. The greatest reduction was for combined infant and toddler visits (69%; 95% CI, 58%-79%); these did not recover the following year. However, during the SARS outbreak there was a large increase in the number of visits for respiratory illnesses in adults (61%; 95% CI, 46%-75%) and in teenagers (132%; 95% CI, 82%-182%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During the SARS outbreak, total ED visits fell. The relative decline was most notable for infants and toddlers. By contrast, there was an increase in respiratory illness-related visits for adults and teenagers. In 2004, the year following the SARS outbreak, visit patterns shifted toward baseline levels, but ED visits by infants and toddlers remained depressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Scarborough Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heiber
authors.forename: W Y Wendy
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric