Robert Dunn1. 1. Emergency Department, Royal Adelaide Hospital, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. rdunn@mail.rah.sa.gov.au
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of changes in hospital occupancy and ED occupancy on ED waiting times during a 13-day period of improved bed access. METHODS: A comparative, observational study of 1133 ED attendances in the study period and 2332 attendances in a historical control period. RESULTS: During the study period, mean hospital occupancy decreased from 94.9% to 89.0% (P < 0.001), mean ED occupancy decreased from 19.1 to 14.8 patients (P < 0.001) and the mean ED waiting time decreased from 58.5 to 37.1 min (P < 0.001). There were statistically significant reductions in waiting times for patients in Australasian triage scale (ATS) categories 2-5. Departmental staffing levels, attendances and patient acuity were not significantly different during the study and control periods. CONCLUSIONS: Modest decreases in hospital occupancy resulted in highly significant reductions in ED waiting times. Emergency department overcrowding due to large numbers of admitted patients awaiting hospital admission is a major cause of ED dysfunction.
OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of changes in hospital occupancy and ED occupancy on ED waiting times during a 13-day period of improved bed access. METHODS: A comparative, observational study of 1133 ED attendances in the study period and 2332 attendances in a historical control period. RESULTS: During the study period, mean hospital occupancy decreased from 94.9% to 89.0% (P < 0.001), mean ED occupancy decreased from 19.1 to 14.8 patients (P < 0.001) and the mean ED waiting time decreased from 58.5 to 37.1 min (P < 0.001). There were statistically significant reductions in waiting times for patients in Australasian triage scale (ATS) categories 2-5. Departmental staffing levels, attendances and patient acuity were not significantly different during the study and control periods. CONCLUSIONS: Modest decreases in hospital occupancy resulted in highly significant reductions in ED waiting times. Emergency department overcrowding due to large numbers of admitted patients awaiting hospital admission is a major cause of ED dysfunction.
Authors: Nathan R Hoot; Stephen K Epstein; Todd L Allen; Spencer S Jones; Kevin M Baumlin; Neal Chawla; Anna T Lee; Jesse M Pines; Amandeep K Klair; Bradley D Gordon; Thomas J Flottemesch; Larry J LeBlanc; Ian Jones; Scott R Levin; Chuan Zhou; Cynthia S Gadd; Dominik Aronsky Journal: Ann Emerg Med Date: 2009-08-29 Impact factor: 5.721
Authors: Christien van der Linden; Resi Reijnen; Robert W Derlet; Robert Lindeboom; Naomi van der Linden; Cees Lucas; John R Richards Journal: Int J Emerg Med Date: 2013-10-24