The following graphs describe hospitalisations following an emergency department visit, compared to ambulatory contacts with the emergency department, without being admitted.
Breakdown according to age
In the case of children, adolescents and young adults, contact with the emergency department only results in admission in 1 out of 10 cases in 2021. Only children under 1 year of age are admitted to the hospital in a quarter of visits to the emergency department. This is twice as many as for children between the ages of 1 and 18. Among the elderly, however, hospitalisations following a visit to the emergency department are more frequent. After the age of 75, a contact with the emergency department is followed by classic hospitalisation in more than half of the cases. Day hospitalisation following a visit to the emergency department occurs only rarely.
Percentage of type of stay following a visit to the emergency department by category of age (2021)
Breakdown according to region
In Flanders, less use is made of emergency departments. Nearly 60% of stays in classic hospitalisation do not occur through the emergency department. About half of the contacts with a hospital involve ambulatory contacts with the emergency department in the Brussels Capital Region (51.3%) and in the Walloon Region (46.3%).
Percentage of stays per type and per region of the hospital after a passage at the emergency department (2021)
Note: The stays in day hospitalisation represent a small proportion and are not included in the graph for the sake of readability.