State of Emergency Medicine in Switzerland: a national profile of emergency departments in 2006

Table 1 Number, location of Swiss emergency departments (EDs), and patient flow

Characteristics		Number of visits per year
Characteristics	All	1 – 5,000	5,001 - 10000	10,001 – 20,000	>20,000	*P value*
Number of EDs, n [%]	122	31 [25]	38 [31]	32 [26]	21 [17]
Urban: – rural status
Metropolitan area [%]	46	16	47	50	67
Large non-metropolitan urban area [%]	20	23	16	25	24	<0.001
Small non-metropolitan urban area [%]	15	13	24	19	5
Rural area [%]	19	48	13	6	5
Total number of visits [thousands]	1,436	89.6	283.4	470.4	631.8
Median number of visits	8,806	2,595	7,028	15,134	26,317
[IQR]	[5,196 – 16,180]	[1,742 - 3,909]	[6,086 - 8,607]	[12,063 - 17,000]	[24,621 -32,000]
Crowding [%]	48	17	32	69	84	<0.001
ED capacity estimation :
Insufficient [%]	41	20	32	62	53
Adequate [%]	51	64	59	34	47	0.021
Underutilized [%]	8	16	9	3	0
Boarding [%]	48	16	41	66	74	<0.001
Hospital capacity estimation:
Insufficient[%]	29	0	21	48	53
Adequate [%]	64	92	68	52	42	<0.001
Underutilized [%]	7	8	12	0	5
ICU within hospital	65	23	59	91	95	<0.001
ICU capacity estimation:
Insufficient [%]	31	20	32	26	39
Adequate [%]	61	60	59	70	50	0.69
Underutilized [%]	8	20	9	4	11

ISSN: 1865-1380