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Table 1 Patient and logistical factors as a function of emergency department length of stay

From: Independent determinants of prolonged emergency department length of stay in a tertiary care centre: a prospective cohort study

  Total population ED LOS ≤ 4 h ED LOS > 4 h
N (%) 1434 1146 (80) 288 (20)
Demographics
 Age, mean (SD) 48 (26) 45 (26) 58 (21)
 Gender (male, %) 749 (52) 599 (52) 150 (52)
Referral status (%)
 Self-referral 469 (33) 400 (35) 69 (24)
 General practitioner 612 (43) 448 (39) 164 (57)
 Specialist 353 (25) 298 (26) 55 (19)
Arrival by ambulance (n, %) 484 (34) 364 (32) 120 (42)
Number of presenting complaints, median (IQR) 1 (1–1) 1 (1–1) 1 (1–2)
Triage category a (n, %) (4)
 Red 32 (2) 32 (3) 0 (0)
 Orange 371 (26) 279 (24) 92 (32)
 Yellow 682 (48) 518 (45) 164 (57)
 Green 337 (24) 305 (27) 32 (11)
 Blue 8 (1) 8 (1) 0 (0)
Number of co-morbidities, median (IQR) 1 (0–2) 1 (0–2) 2 (1–3)
CCI, median (IQR) 0 (0–0) 0 (0–1) 1 (0–2)
Triage complaint (n,%)
 Headache 16 (1) 8 (1) 8 (3)
 Dyspnoea 144 (10) 103 (9) 41 (14)
 Chest pain 114 (8) 74 (7) 40 (14)
 Palpitations 41 (3) 24 (3) 7 (2)
 Abdominal pain 135 (9) 98 (9) 37 (13)
 Malaise 274 (19) 200 (18) 74 (26)
 Small traumatic injury 323 (23) 299 (26) 24 (8)
 Syncope 43 (3) 36 (3) 7 (2)
 Other 344 (24) 294 (26) 50 (17)
Treating physician (n, %)
 ED physician 715 (50) 608 (53) 107 (37)
 Internal medicine 221 (15) 141 (12) 80 (28)
 Cardiology 117 (8) 85 (7) 32 (11)
 Surgery 71 (5) 58 (5) 13 (5)
 Neurology 78 (5) 52 (5) 26 (9)
 Other specialties 232 (16) 202 (18) 30 (10)
Diagnostic tests (n, %)
 Blood testing 916 (64) 648 (57) 268 (93)
 Urine testing 299 (21) 183 (16) 116 (40)
 Radiology imaging 686 (48) 468 (41) 218 (76)
Consultation of other specialty in ED (n, %) 366 (26) 214 (19) 152 (53)
Number of patients in ED at the time of ED registration, mean (SD) 11 (5) 11 (5) 11 (5)
Disposition (n, %) (1)
 Home 916 (64) 785 (69) 131 (46)
 Admission ward 46 (32) 317 (28) 148 (51)
 Admission ICU/MCU 46 (3) 37 (3) 9 (3)
 Otherb 6 (1) 6 (3) 0 (0)
ED LOS (min), median (IQR) 156 (98–225) 134 (87–180) 301 (270–357)
  1. Patient characteristics are presented for the total population, patients who had an ED LOS ≤ and > 4 h. Continuous data are presented as mean (SD) or median (IQR) and categorical data as number (n),%). The number of missing cases are denoted between brackets for each variable
  2. a The presented ‘triage category’ and ‘triage complaint’ were according to the Manchester Triage System (MTS)
  3. b Of the 6 patients with another final disposition, 5 patients died on the ED and 1 patients returned to the psychiatric hospital were the patient was admitted before arrival at the ED
  4. Abbreviations: CCI Charlson Comorbidity Index, ED Emergency Department, LOS Length of Stay, IC Intensive Care Unit, MCU Medium Care Unit
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