Emergency Department Waiting Times and Determinants of Prolonged Length of Stay in a Botswana Referral Hospital

• 作者: Bonolo Bonnie Mhaladi John Thato Tlhakanelo Keatlaretse Siamisang
• 来源期刊: 急诊医学(英文)
• 学科: 数学
• 关键词: Emergency Department Waiting Times Prolonged Length of Stay Determinants
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（3）
• 页码范围: 59-70
• 页数: 12页
• 分类号: O17

摘要

<b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Introduction: </span></b><span style="font-family:;" "=""><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Emergency medicine is a critical component of quality public health service. In fact length of stay and waiting times in the Emergency department are key indicators of quality. The aim of this study was to determine </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">waiting times and determinants of prolonged length of stay (LOS) in the</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Princess Marina Hospital Emergency Department. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Methods: </span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">This was a retrospective observational study. It was done at Princess Marina, a referral hospital </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">in Gaborone, Botswana. Triage forms of patients who presented between</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> 19/11/</span></span><span style="font-family:;" "=""> </span><span style="font-family:;" "=""><span style="font-family:Verdana;">2018 and 18/12/2018 were reviewed. Data from patient files was used to determine time duration from triage to being reviewed by a doctor, time duration from review by emergency doctor to patients’ disposition and the time </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">duration from patient’s triage to disposition (length of stay). Prolonged</span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> length </span><span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">of stay was defined as duration > 6 hours. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Results: </span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">A total of 1052 files</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> repre</span></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">- </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;">senting patients seen over a 1-month period were reviewed. 72.5% of the patients had a prolonged length of stay. The median emergency doctor waiting time was 4.5 hours (IQR 1.6 - 8.3 hours) and the maximum was 27.1 hours. The median length of stay in the emergency d