Emergency Department Performance Indexes Before and After Establishment of Emergency Medicine
Archives of Academic Emergency Medicine,
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2013),
2 Tir 2013
,
Page 20-23
https://doi.org/10.22037/aaem.v1i1.11
Abstract
Introduction: Emergency department performance index (EPI) greatly influences the function of other hospital’s units and patient satisfaction. Recently, the Iranian Ministry of Health has defined specific national EPI containing five indexes. In the present study the performance indexes of emergency department (ED) in one educational hospital has been assessed before and after establishment of emergency medicine. Methods: In the present cross-sectional study the ED of Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital, Tehran, Iran was assessed during one-year period from March 2012 to February 2013. The study was divided into two six-month periods of before and after establishment of emergency medicine. Five performance indexes including: the percentage of patients were disposed during 6-hour, leaved the ED in a 12-hour, had unsuccessful cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR), discharged against medical advice, and the mean time of triage were calculated using data of department of medical records on daily patients’ files. Then, Mann-Whitney U test was used to make comparisons at P<0.05. Results: The average triage time decreased from 6.04 minutes in the first six months to 1.5 minutes in the second six months (P=0.06). The percentage of patients leaving the ED in a 12-hour decreased from 97.3% to 90.4% (P=0.004). However, the percentage of disposed patients during 6-hour (P=0.2), unsuccessful CPR (P=0.34) and discharged against medical advice (P=0.42) did not differ between the two periods. Conclusion: It seems that establishment of emergency medicine could be able to improve ED performances indexes such as time to triage and leave in a 12-hour period.
- Emergency department performance index
- emergency medicine
- patient discharge
- triage
How to Cite
References
Geelhoed GC, de Klerk NH. Emergency department overcrowding, mortality and the 4-hour rule in Western Australia. Med J Aust. 2012;196(2):122-6.
Richardson DB. Increase in patient mortality at 10 days associated with emergency department overcrowding. Med J Aust. 2006;184(5):213.
Trzeciak S, Rivers E. Emergency department overcrowding in the United States: an emerging threat to patient safety and public health. Emerg Med J. 2003;20(5):402-5.
Casalino E, Choquet C, Julien B, et al. Predictive variables of an emergency department quality and performance indicator: a 1-year prospective, observational, cohort study evaluating hospital and emergency census variables and emergency department time interval measurements. Emerg Med J. 2012.
Goroll AH, Mulley AG. Primary care medicine: office evaluation and management of the adult patient: Wolters Kluwer Health; 2012.
Nordstrom K, Zun LS, Wilson MP, et al. Medical evaluation and triage of the agitated patient: consensus statement of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry Project BETA Medical Evaluation Workgroup. West J Emerg Med. 2012;13(1):3.
Dixon A, Ham C. Setting objectives for the NHS Commissio- ning Board. Brit Med J. 2012;345.
Guidotti TL. What key performance indicators can be used in occupational health? J Occup Environ Med. 2012;54 (8):1042-3.
Bagust A, Place M, Posnett JW. Dynamics of bed use in accommodating emergency admissions: stochastic simulation model. Brit Med J. 1999;319(7203):155.
Forster AJ, Stiell I, Wells G, Lee AJ, Van Walraven C. The effect of hospital occupancy on emergency department length of stay and patient disposition. Acad Emerg Med. 2003;10 (2):127-33.
Han JH, Zhou C, France DJ, et al. The effect of emergency department expansion on emergency department overcro- wding. Acad Emerg Med. 2007;14(4):338-43.
Ferreira MAM, Andrade M, Filipe JA, Coelho MP. Statistical queuing theory with some applications. International Journal of Latest Trends in Finance and Economic Sciences. 2012;1(4): 12-9.
Kiwi M, Soto M, Thraves C. Adversarial queuing theory with setups. Theor Comput Sci. 2009;410(8):670-87.
Bowker L, Stewart K. Predicting unsuccessful cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR): a comparison of three morbidity scores. Resuscitation. 1999;40(2):89-95.
Peberdy MA, Kaye W, Ornato JP, et al. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation of adults in the hospital: A report of 14 720 cardiac arrests from the National Registry of Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation. Resuscitation. 2003;58(3):297-308.
Rahmani H, Arab M, Akbari Feizollah, Zera'ati H. Structure, processes and activities of emergency units of educational hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. J Fac Hygiene Health Res Instit. 2006;4(4):13-22. [Persian].
Movahednia S, Partovishayan Z, Bastanitehrani M. A survey of timing indicators of emergency department at Firoozgar hospital: 2012. J Health Administ. 2013;16(51):95-102.
Tabibi SJ, Najafi B, Shoaie S. Waiting time in the emergency department in selected hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2007. Pejouhesh. 2009;33(2):117-22. [Persian].
Zohoor A, Pilevar Zadeh M. Study of speed of offering services in emergency department at Kerman Bahonar hospital in 2000. Razi J Med Sci. 2003;10(35):413-9. [Persian].
- Abstract Viewed: 311 times
- PDF Downloaded: 2936 times
