Erin L Simon1, Sunita Shakya2, Louisa Liu2, Greg Griffin2, Courtney M Smalley3, Seth Podolsky3, Rakesh Engineer3. 1. Cleveland Clinic Akron General, Department of Emergency Medicine, United States. Electronic address: SimonE@ccf.org. 2. Cleveland Clinic Akron General, Department of Emergency Medicine, United States. 3. Cleveland Clinic Emergency Services Institute, Department of Emergency Medicine, United States.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Freestanding emergency departments (FEDs) care for all patients, including critically ill, 24/7/365. We characterized patients from three FEDs transferred to intensive care units (ICU) at a tertiary care hospital, and compared hospital length of stay(LOS) between patients admitted to ICUs from FEDs versus a hospital-based ED (HBED). METHODS: We performed a retrospective, observational cohort study from January 2014 to December 2016. Demographic and clinical information was compared between FED and HBED patients with chi-square and fisher's exact tests for categorical variables and Student's t-test for continuous variables. The main outcome of interest was hospital LOS. Multi-variable linear regression was performed to estimate association between LOS and emergency facility type, while adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: We included 500 critically ill patients (FED = 250 and HBED = 250). Patients did not differ by age, gender, or BMI. FED patients were more likely to be white (89.6% vs. 70.8%, p < 0.001) and have higher Charlson Co-morbidity Index scores (3.5 vs. 2.4, p < 0.001). Average LOS for FED patients was 5 days, compared to 7 days for HBED patients (p < 0.001). After adjusting for demographic and clinical confounders, there was significant correlation between ED facility type and LOS in hospital (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients transferred from FEDs to an ICU were similar in age and gender, but more likely to be white with a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index score. FED patients experienced shorter hospital length of stay compared to patients admitted from a HBED.
BACKGROUND: Freestanding emergency departments (FEDs) care for all patients, including critically ill, 24/7/365. We characterized patients from three FEDs transferred to intensive care units (ICU) at a tertiary care hospital, and compared hospital length of stay(LOS) between patients admitted to ICUs from FEDs versus a hospital-based ED (HBED). METHODS: We performed a retrospective, observational cohort study from January 2014 to December 2016. Demographic and clinical information was compared between FED and HBED patients with chi-square and fisher's exact tests for categorical variables and Student's t-test for continuous variables. The main outcome of interest was hospital LOS. Multi-variable linear regression was performed to estimate association between LOS and emergency facility type, while adjusting for potential confounders. RESULTS: We included 500 critically illpatients (FED = 250 and HBED = 250). Patients did not differ by age, gender, or BMI. FEDpatients were more likely to be white (89.6% vs. 70.8%, p < 0.001) and have higher Charlson Co-morbidity Index scores (3.5 vs. 2.4, p < 0.001). Average LOS for FEDpatients was 5 days, compared to 7 days for HBED patients (p < 0.001). After adjusting for demographic and clinical confounders, there was significant correlation between ED facility type and LOS in hospital (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION:Patients transferred from FEDs to an ICU were similar in age and gender, but more likely to be white with a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index score. FEDpatients experienced shorter hospital length of stay compared to patients admitted from a HBED.