Geospatial Distribution of Pediatric Emergency Department and Urgent Care Patients’ Residences and Discharge Diagnoses after Hurricane Harvey

Purpose: Floods cause significant issues for citizens, authorities, and government agencies. Hurricane Harvey (HH) caused havoc in Texas in August 2017, as the third major flood to affect the city of Houston in 3 years. As clinics and medical resources are taxed, patients may rely on emergency departments (ED) and urgent care centers (UC). Infectious disease prevalence has been reported to increase after flooding events, but no study to date has specifically described the nature of pediatric visits. This study aims to describe the geospatial distribution of pediatric patients’ residences in the Houston area, and characterize their utilization of EDs and UCs before and after …