Figure 2

The ED visits is the number of patient visits to the emergency department in a certain period. The EDS visits are the sum of the visits to the subsystems (ambulatory system, treatment berth system, bed system) within the ED in a certain period. The EDS visits figure is higher than the ED visits figure due to the cumulative effect (the same patient may pass through different subsystems within one patient process). The difference between the two figures may provide additional information on workload. Similar to ED visits, we distinguish between ED cases (number of cases of illness) and ED patients (personal identity).