• Ali Pourmand, Raymond Lucas, Jesse M Pines, Hamid Shokoohi, and Kabir Yadav.
• George Washington University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC.
• West J Emerg Med. 2013 Mar 1;14(2):137-40.

IntroductionWe tested the effect of a brief disposition process intervention on residents' time to disposition and emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) in high acuity ED patients.MethodsThis was a quasi-experimental study design in a single teaching hospital where ED residents are responsible for administrative bed requests for patients. Enrollment was performed for intervention and control groups on an even-odd day schedule. Inclusion criteria were ED patients triaged as Emergency Severity Index (ESI) 1 and 2. In the intervention group, the attending physician prompted the resident to make the disposition immediately after the evaluation of resuscitation patients. In the control group, the attending physicians did not intervene in the disposition process unless more than 2 hours passed without a disposition. Main outcomes were time to disposition and total ED LOS.ResultsA total of 104 patients were enrolled; 53 (51%) in the intervention group and 51 (49%) in the control group. After controlling for ESI and resident training year, mean disposition time was significantly shorter in the intervention group by 41.4 minutes (95% CI: 32.6-50.1). LOS was also shorter in the intervention group by 93.3 minutes (95% CI: 41.9-144.6).ConclusionPrompting residents to enter administrative disposition orders in high acuity patients is associated with significant reduction in both time to disposition and ED LOS.

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