A retrospective chart review of pediatric patients (Age ≤18) presenting to AUBMC ED during the study period (May 2010-April 2011) was completed. Investigators looked at the most common diagnoses among 5 age groups (<1 year, 1-4 years, 5-9 years, 10-14 years, 15-18 years) in 3 categories (all pediatric ED visits, treat-and-release and admitted visits). Data included Socio-demographic variables, clinical characteristics, guarantor, Emergency Severity index, and diagnosis. Diagnoses were classified according to CCS (Clinical classification software).

Pediatric patients (Age ≤18) presenting to AUBMC ED during the study period (May 2010-April 2011).

Data Source

The data used in this study was obtained from the medical records office. This data contains individual records included patient demographics, source of payment and diagnosis. The diagnosis is defined as the final reason that appears in the patient’s chart resulting either in hospital admission or discharge from the Emergency Department. The diagnoses are coded according to ICD-9-CM, the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, which assigns numeric codes to diagnoses. There are approximately 14,000 ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes. The study authors classified the ED diagnoses according to CCS (clinical classification software).

CCS categorizes ICD-9-CM diagnoses into a limited number of categories, which facilitates the statistical analysis and renders the patterns of diagnoses easier to understand. CCS has two levels of classification systems. The first system is the single-level CCS that aggregates illnesses and conditions into 285 mutually exclusive categories. The second system is the multi-level CCS that groups the single-level into broader categories and generates 17 categories according to the body systems.