Impact of Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak on the use of emergency medical resources in febrile patients

Jeong, Hyunho; Jeong, Sikyoung; Oh, Juseok; Woo, Seon Hee; So, Byung Hak; Wee, Jeong Hee; Kim, Ji Hoon; Im, Ji Yong; Choi, Seung Pill; Park, Kyoungnam; Cho, Byul Nim Hee; Hong, Sungyoup

This was an ecological study design, based on a retrospective review of epidemiologic and clinical records of febrile patients attending regional and metropolitan emergency centers. Data were extracted from a national registry of emergency patients in Korea. The methods involved estimating the changes in epidemiologic and clinical data from the annual baseline data after the MERS-CoV epidemic. Data for patients visiting three emergency facilities were extracted from the National Emergency Department Information System (NEDIS), operated by the National Emergency Medical Center of Korea and obtained from EDs across Korea. The Impact of MERS outbreak on emergency care Unified Medical Language System was used for data extraction from the NEDIS database and data transfer from each hospital to the National Emergency Medical Center.