Abstract: Objective · To investigate the effect of population aging on health condition of Emergency Department (ED) visitors, the disease constitution of ED, the pressure of emergency treatment and the emergency department length of stay (EDLOS).  Methods · Patient data from ED of a tertiary hospital in Shanghai from Jan. 2014 to Dec. 2016 were collected and retrospectively analyzed, including gender, age, arrival time, diagnosis, EDLOS, outcome, chronic disease, infection or tumor, etc. Statistics was used to determine possible factors associated with prolonged EDLOS.  Results · A total of 15 429 cases were selected. The number of the elderly patients ( ≥ 65 years old) was 8 480 (54.96%). The elderly patients’ EDLOS was significantly longer than patients younger than 65 years (P=0.000). The incidence of chronic aging diseases was significantly higher in elderly patients (67%) than in who were below 65 years old (52%). Tumor and infection were independent risk factors for EDLOS (P=0.000). The proportion of elderly patients with acute onset and unknown diseases was only 14%.  Conclusion · The increasing proportion of elderly patients in ED is the main reason leading to the pressure of emergency treatment. The elderly patients who had chronic diseases prolong the EDLOS and cost the most medical resources of emergency treatment. So the gerontology should be rapidly expanding. Meanwhile, the complex chronic aging diseases, acute onset of chronic disease and varying severity of disease in the elderly patients should be treated by the new stepping mode “Family- Hospitalization-Emergency”. [

Key words: emergency department crowding, elderly patients, length of stay, emergency department length of stay, chronic aging diseases