• Jari Ylä-Mattila, Teemu Koivistoinen, Henna Siippainen, Heini Huhtala, and Sami Mustajoki.
• Emergency Department, Tampere University Hospital.
• Eur J Emerg Med. 2024 Jul 4.

Background And ImportanceExisting data are limited for determining the medical conditions best suited for an emergency department (ED) redirection strategy in a heterogeneous, nonurgent patient population.ObjectiveThe aim was to establish factors associated with hospital revisits within 7 days among patients discharged or redirected by a triage team.Design, Settings, And ParticipantsAn observational single-center case-control study was conducted at the Tampere University Hospital ED for the full calendar year of 2019. The cases comprised unplanned hospital revisits within 7 days of being discharged or redirected by triage, while the controls were discharged or redirected but did not revisit.Outcome Measures And AnalysisThe primary outcome was an unplanned hospital revisit within 7 days. A subgroup analysis was conducted for revisits leading to hospitalization. Basic demographics, comorbidities before triage, and triage visit characteristics were considered as predictive factors for the revisit. A backward stepwise conditional logistic regression analysis was performed.Main ResultsDuring the calendar year of 2019, there were a total of 92 406 ED visits. Of these, 7216 (7.8%) visits were discharged or redirected by triage, and 6.5% (n = 467) of all these patients revisited. Of the revisiting patients, 25% (n = 117) were hospitalized. In multivariable analysis, higher age was associated with both revisitation [odds ratio (OR): 1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.00-1.02] and hospitalization (OR: 1.02, 95% CI: 1.00-1.04). Furthermore, using other visits as a reference, abdominal pain was associated with revisitation and hospitalization (OR: 3.70, 95% CI: 2.24-6.11 and OR: 5.28, 95% CI: 2.08-13.4, respectively).ConclusionHigher age and abdominal pain were associated with hospital revisitation and hospitalization within 7 days among patients directly discharged or redirected by the triage team. Regardless of the triage system in use, there might be patient groups that should be evaluated more cautiously if a triage-based discharge or redirection strategy is to be considered.Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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