Time distribution of emergency internal medicine outpatient visits

Objective To examine the time distribution of emergency internal medicine outpatient visits and to provide references for reasonable allocation of emergency department personnel.Methods We collected the data on attendees of internal medicine outpatient department in a general hospital from October 1st,2013 to September 30st,2016 though hospital information system (HIS). Descriptive statistical methods and χ² test were used to analyze the hourly,weekly,and monthly distribution of outpatient visits with SPSS 20.0. Results There were two peak hour periods for daily emergency internal medicine outpatient visits; the first peak hour period was between 7∶00-10:00 ante meridiem,with the mean annual visits number of 10 348 (21.9% of total mean annual visits) and the second was between 16:00-20:00 post meridiem,with the mean annual visits of 15 104 (31.9%).No weekly fluctuation in emergency internal medicine outpatient visits was observed.There were two monthly peaks for emergency internal medicine outpatient visits; the first peak was in December (9.8% of total annual visits) and the second was in January (10.5%); the lowest number of emergency internal medicine outpatient visits was observed in October (6.6%). Monthly average minimum air pressure,monthly mean minimum temperature,and monthly mean relative humidity were negatively correlated with emergency internal medicine outpatient visits. Conclusion There is no obvious weekly fluctuation in emergency internal medicine outpatient visits but there are two peak periods for daily and monthly distribution of emergency internal medicine outpatient visits,which associate with local climate characteristics to some extent.