Table 2.

Dimensions of emergency care by resource setting

Emergency care dimension	Low resource setting	Middle resource setting	High resource setting
Temporal	Relatively long time from illness onset to presentation for care; distribution skewed to right	Variable time from illness onset to presentation for care; distribution with long tails	Shorter time from illness onset to presentation for care; distribution skewed to left
Spatial	Supermajority of initial illness presentation to local acute intake areas of available health facilities with middle-level health providers.	Variable presentations across health system, from local clinics to district hospitals	Supermajority of initial illness presentations to hospital-based emergency departments with physician staff
Health burdens and priorities	Substantial burden of disease related to acute infectious disease, injuries, high burden of paediatric illness; certain settings may have unusually or uniquely high prevalence of certain exposures or conditions (eg, Ebola, extreme heat)	Variable range of threats across settings; larger overall burden of disease associated with non-communicable and communicable disease related to risk transition	Substantial proportion of disease related to acute exacerbations of chronic disease
System Capacity (clinical care and research)	Lower average levels of training among care providers, lower per capita provider rates, lower research capacity	Variable skill and capacity, typically concentrated in urban areas; variable research capacity	Higher per capita rates of physician coverage, relatively high research capacity