• Eur J Emerg Med · Aug 2017

    Comparative Study

    Time delay to surgery for appendicitis: no difference between surgical assessment unit and emergency department.

    • Helen Schultz, Niels Qvist, Birthe D Pedersen, and Christian B Mogensen.
    • aSurgical Department, Odense University Hospital bResearch Unit of Nursing, University of Southern Denmark cEmergency Department, Soenderjylland Hospital, Aabenraa, Denmark.
    • Eur J Emerg Med. 2017 Aug 1; 24 (4): 290-294.

    BackgroundIn Denmark, emergency departments (EDs) are replacing acute surgical and medical units. The aim of this study was to compare the trajectory of patients undergoing surgery on the suspicion of appendicitis in a surgical assessment unit (SAU) and EDs with an observation unit, respectively. The primary outcome measure was the time from hospital arrival-to-decision for surgery.Materials And MethodsA comparative retrospective study with a cross-sectional design and a before-and-after design was carried out during January 2011 to December 2012 at a SAU and an ED at a university hospital (U-SAU and U-ED) and at an ED at a regional hospital (R-ED). Data included time of arrival, decision for surgery, surgery and discharge, and number of blood tests.ResultsIn total, 250 patients were included. Time to decision for surgery was 4.50, 4.95, and 4.63 h (P=0.58) in the U-SAU, R-ED, and U-ED, respectively. Time from decision for surgery to start of surgery was 4.60, 3.29, and 4.12 h in the U-SAU, R-ED, and U-ED, respectively. The difference was significant between the U-SAU and R-ED (P=0.05) and between R-ED and U-ED (P=0.03). Time from surgery to discharge from the hospital was 17.88, 19.28, and 15.13 h in the U-SAU, R-ED, and U-ED, respectively. The difference was significant between the EDs (P=0.02). Significantly more blood tests were performed in the EDs than in the U-SAU.ConclusionThe introduction of EDs with observation units did not influence time to decision for surgery, but more blood tests were performed.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…