Patient throughput times and inflow patterns in Swedish emergency departments. A basis for ANSWER, A National SWedish Emergency Registry

Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine

Maaret Castrén⁵  Per Lindmarker¹  Anna Letterstål¹  Paulus Torkki²  Fredrik Eklund⁴  Lisa Kurland⁵  Ulf Ekelund³ 

[1] Emergency Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden;HEMA-Institute, BIT Research Centre, Aalto University, Finland;Emergency Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences at Lund, Lund University, Sweden;Karolinska Institutet, Medical Management Centre, Stockholm, Sweden;Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Sciences and Education and Section of Emergency Medicine, Södersjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

关键词: Registry;    Throughput times;    Quality of care;    Quality measures;    Emergency department;   

Others  :  827021
DOI  :  10.1186/1757-7241-19-37

 received in 2011-04-04, accepted in 2011-06-13,  发布年份 2011

【 摘 要 】

Objective

Quality improvement initiatives in emergency medicine (EM) often suffer from a lack of benchmarking data on the quality of care. The objectives of this study were twofold: 1. To assess the feasibility of collecting benchmarking data from different Swedish emergency departments (EDs) and 2. To evaluate patient throughput times and inflow patterns.

Method

We compared patient inflow patterns, total lengths of patient stay (LOS) and times to first physician at six Swedish university hospital EDs in 2009. Study data were retrieved from the hospitals' computerized information systems during single on-site visits to each participating hospital.

Results

All EDs provided throughput times and patient presentation data without significant problems. In all EDs, Monday was the busiest day and the fewest patients presented on Saturday. All EDs had a large increase in patient inflow before noon with a slow decline over the rest of the 24 h, and this peak and decline was especially pronounced in elderly patients. The average LOS was 4 h of which 2 h was spent waiting for the first physician. These throughput times showed a considerable diurnal variation in all EDs, with the longest times occurring 6-7 am and in the late afternoon.

Conclusion

These results demonstrate the feasibility of collecting benchmarking data on quality of care targets within Swedish EM, and form the basis for ANSWER, A National SWedish Emergency Registry.

【 授权许可】

   
2011 Ekelund et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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