• J Emerg Med · Aug 2013

    Delays in service for non-emergent patients due to arrival of emergent patients in the emergency department: a case study in Hong Kong.

    • Mai Xu, Tse Chiu Wong, Shui Yee Wong, Kwai Sang Chin, Kwok Leung Tsui, and Renee Y Hsia.
    • Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
    • J Emerg Med. 2013 Aug 1;45(2):271-80.

    BackgroundIn Hong Kong Emergency Departments (EDs), the timeliness of providing high-quality services has been compromised by the increasing attendance of non-emergent patients in addition to the unpredictable arrival of emergency patients.ObjectivesWe sought to quantify the impact of the presence of emergent patients and other related factors on the delay in service for non-emergent patients.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study in patients who visited the ED of a large hospital in Hong Kong from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. We estimated waiting and length of stay (LOS) for individual non-emergent patients registered during day and evening shifts. Using multiple linear regression, we estimated waiting time and LOS as a function of the presence of emergent patients and other related factors such as patient demographics and clinical factors. In particular, we evaluated the influence of the arrival or presence of emergent patients on the odds of violating the 120-min waiting time target for semi-urgent patients.ResultsThe arrival of a new emergent patient prolonged the waiting time and LOS of a non-emergent patient by 14.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 14.2-15.5) and 10.8% (95% CI 10.6-11.0), respectively. An additional patient-hour needed for an emergent patient increased the probability of violating the waiting time target for non-emergent patients (odds ratio 2.3, 95% CI 2.2-2.4).ConclusionsThe arrival of an emergent patient significantly prolonged the waiting time and LOS for non-emergent patients. Discouraging non-urgent ED utilization and building a real-time decision-support system are critical methods needed to relieve staff pressure and guide contingent resource reallocation when emergent patients arrive.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      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…