Effects of a hospital-wide intervention on emergency department crowding and quality: A prospective study

Hospital indicators after implementation of bed regulation strategies: an integrative review

OBJECTIVES

to analyze the scientific evidence available in literature on hospital indicators after implementation of bed regulation strategies.

METHODS

this is an integrative review conducted with studies available in five databases and in the reference database of the Center for Study and Research in Nursing Services Management in October 2019. Articles on hospital bed management, available in full in English, Spanish or Portuguese, without temporal delimitation were included.

RESULTS

1,118 eligible articles were found, of which 37 were duplicated. Among 1,081 pre-selected studies, 112 studies were eligible and 11 articles were included. Six studies addressed the emergency services. Three addressed hospital indicators in general, another focused on a psychiatric ward and one analyzed the indicators of two hospitals administered differently.

CONCLUSIONS

the studies focused on emergency services, demonstrating the importance of organizing these services for health institutions.

Indicators of surgical patients after the implementation of an Internal Bed Regulation Committee in a university hospital

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the indicators of surgical patients after the implementation of an Internal Bed Regulation Committee in a university hospital.

METHOD

Longitudinal, quantitative, and retrospective study. The data collection was conducted in the Hospital Management Information institutional system, from which the information of patients submitted to surgical procedures from January 2015 to June 2018 were obtained. To verify the data trends, a simple linear regression model was used.

RESULTS

The predominance of patients aged 20 to 39 and hospitalized on an emergency basis was observed. An ascending trend for structure indicators was verified regarding the number of surgical procedures and patients per surgical room. The process indicators were stagnant. An ascending trend was presented by the result indicators related to the number of surgical patients, hospitalized surgical patients, surgical procedures, and patients with Hospitalization Authorization.

CONCLUSION

A change in the mean values of the process indicators was observed, showing the performance of this service. Organizational changes were also observed regarding the establishment of norms, processes, and flows.

The impact of hospital boarding on the emergency department waiting room

BACKGROUND

Patient boarding in the emergency department (ED) is a significant issue leading to increased morbidity/mortality, longer lengths of stay, and higher hospital costs. We examined the impact of boarding patients on the ED waiting room. Additionally, we determined whether facility type, patient acuity, time of day, or hospital occupancy impacted waiting rooms in 18 EDs across a large healthcare system.

METHODS

This was a retrospective multicenter study that included all ED encounters between January 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019. Encounters with missing Emergency Severity Index (ESI) level were excluded. ESI levels were defined as high (ESI 1,2), middle (ESI 3), and low (ESI 4,5). Spearman correlation coefficients measured the relationship between boarded patients and number of patients in ED waiting room. A multivariable mixed effects model identified drivers of this relationship.

RESULTS

A total of 1,134,178 encounters were included. Spearman correlation coefficient was significant between number of patients in the ED waiting room and patient boarding (0.54). For every additional patient boarded/hour, the number of patients waiting/hour in the waiting room increased by 8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08-1.09). The number of patients waiting for a room/hour was 2.28 times higher for middle than for high acuity. The number of patients in waiting room slightly decreased as hospital occupancy increased (95% CI = 0.997-0.997).

CONCLUSION

Number of patients in ED waiting room are directly related to boarding times and hospital occupancy. ED waiting room times should be considered as not just an ED operational issue, but an aspect of hospital throughput.

Challenges, consequences, and lessons for way-outs to emergencies at hospitals: a systematic review study

Background

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding adversely affects patients’ health, accessibility, and quality of healthcare systems for communities. Several studies have addressed this issue. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review study concerning challenges, lessons and way outs of clinical emergencies at hospitals.

Methods

Original research articles on crowding of emergencies at hospitals published from 1st January 2007, and 1st August 2018 were utilized. Relevant studies from the PubMed and EMBASE databases were assessed using suitable keywords. Two reviewers independently screened the titles, abstracts and the methodological validity of the records using data extraction format before their inclusion in the final review. Discussions with the senior faculty member were used to resolve any disagreements among the reviewers during the assessment phase.

Results

Out of the total 117 articles in the final record, we excluded 11 of them because of poor quality. Thus, this systematic review synthesized the reports of 106 original articles. Overall 14, 55 and 29 of the reviewed refer to causes, effects, and solutions of ED crowding, respectively. The review also included four articles on both causes and effects and another four on causes and solutions. Multiple individual patients and healthcare system related challenges, experiences and responses to crowding and its consequences are comprehensively synthesized.

Conclusion

ED overcrowding is a multi-facet issue which affects by patient-related factors and emergency service delivery. Crowding of the EDs adversely affected individual patients, healthcare delivery systems and communities. The identified issues concern organizational managers, leadership, and operational level actions to reduce crowding and improve emergency healthcare outcomes efficiently.

The impact of a multimodal intervention on emergency department crowding and patient flow

Objective

The objective of this study is to assess the impact of a multimodal intervention on emergency department (ED) crowding and patient flow in a Dutch level 1 trauma center.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we compare ED crowding and patient flow between a 9-month pre-intervention period and a 9-month intervention period, during peak hours and overall (24/7). The multimodal intervention included (1) adding an emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) and (2) five medical specialists during peak hours to the 24/7 available emergency physicians (EPs), (3) a Lean programme to improve radiology turnaround times, and (4) extending the admission offices’ openings hours.

Crowding is measured with the modified National ED OverCrowding Score (mNEDOCS). Furthermore, radiology turnaround times, patients’ length of stay (LOS), proportion of patients leaving without being seen (LWBS) by a medical provider, and unscheduled representations are assessed.

Results

The number of ED visits were grossly similar in the two periods during peak hours (15,558 ED visits in the pre-intervention period and 15,550 in the intervention period) and overall (31,891 ED visits in the pre-intervention period vs. 32,121 in the intervention period). During peak hours, ED crowding fell from 18.6% (pre-intervention period) to 3.5% (intervention period), radiology turnaround times decreased from an average of 91 min (interquartile range 45–256 min) to 50 min (IQR 30–106 min., p < 0.001) and LOS reduced with 13 min per patient from 167 to 154 min (p < 0.001). For surgery, neurology and cardiology patients, LOS reduced significantly (with 17 min, 25 min, and 8 min. respectively), while not changing for internal medicine patients. Overall, crowding, radiology turnaround times and LOS also decreased. Less patients LWBS in the intervention period (270 patients vs. 348 patients, p < 0.001) and less patients represented unscheduled within 1 week after the initial ED visit: 864 (2.7%) in the pre-intervention period vs. 645 (2.0%) patients in the intervention period, p < 0.001.

Conclusions

In this hospital, a multimodal intervention successfully reduces crowding, radiology turnaround times, patients’ LOS, number of patients LWBS and the number of unscheduled return visits, suggesting improved ED processes. Further research is required on total costs of care and long-term effects.

Long length of stay at the emergency department is mostly caused by organisational factors outside the influence of the emergency department: A root cause analysis

Background

Emergency department (ED) crowding is common and associated with increased costs and negative patient outcomes. The aim of this study was to conduct an in-depth analysis to identify the root causes of an ED length of stay (ED-LOS) of more than six hours.

Methods

An observational retrospective record review study was conducted to analyse the causes for ED-LOS of more than six hours during a one-week period in an academic hospital in the Netherlands. Basic administrative data were collected for all visiting patients. A root cause analysis was conducted using the PRISMA-method for patients with an ED-LOS > 6 hours, excluding children and critical care room presentations.

Results

568 patients visited the ED during the selected week (January 2017). Eighty-four patients (15%) had an ED-LOS > 6 hours and a PRISMA-analysis was performed in 74 (88%) of these patients. 269 root causes were identified, 216 (76%) of which were organisational and 53 (22%) patient or disease related. 207 (94%) of the organisational factors were outside the influence of the ED. Descriptive statistics showed a mean number of 2,5 consultations, 59% hospital admissions or transfers and a mean age of 57 years in the ED-LOS > 6 hours group. For the total group, there was a mean number of 1,9 consultations, 29% hospital admissions or transfers and a mean age of 43 years.

Conclusions

This study showed that the root causes for an increased ED-LOS were mostly organisational and beyond the control of the ED. These results confirm that interventions addressing the complete acute care chain are needed in order to reduce ED-LOS and crowding in ED’s.