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 |