Emergency department presentations of febrile children to an Australian public hospital

Aim: We investigated the presentations of children with unspecified fever to an Australian emergency department (ED): (i) to determine the proportionof these presentations that could be classified as potentially avoidable and (ii) to identify factors associated with an increased risk of hospitaladmission.Methods: This study retrospectively identified and described children aged Results: A total of 459 patients aged Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first Australian study that has assessed the impact of unspecified childhood fever on an AustralianED. Further investigation of presentations classified as potentially avoidable is warranted to investigate whether these could be managed in theprimary care setting