بررسی عوامل مرتبط با زمان اقامت بیماران در بخش اورژانس: یک مطالعه تحلیلی

Background: The mean emergency department length of stay is an important indicator of the effectiveness of health services. It can be affected by several patient-related factors including gender, age, time of visit, main complaint, and allocated triage level. This study evaluated the relationships between these factors and emergency department length of stay. Methods: The present descriptive-analytical study applied convenience sampling to recruit 408 adult patients who presented at the emergency department of Besat Hospital (Hamadan, Iran) during a three-month period in 2013. A chronometer was used to measure the time interval between the patients&rsquo; presentation at the emergency department and their discharge (i.e. length of stay in the emergency department) through direct observation. The determined values were recorded in a relevant form. The Emergency Severity Index (ESI) form was also completed by triage nurses in charge. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis and independent-t tests, were performed to analyze the data. All analyses were conducted in SPSS/16 at a confidence interval of 95%. Result: The mean emergency department length of stay was 133.26&plusmn;41.91 minutes. There were no significant relationships between length of stay and the patients&rsquo; gender (P=0.52), referral type (P=0.14), and history of hospitalization (P=0.80). However, length of stay was significantly related with the patients&rsquo; age, time of admission, and main complaint (P<0.001). Conclusion: Considering the role of patients&rsquo; age, time of visit, main complaint, and level of triage in determining emergency department length of stay, these factors should be incorporated as indicators of effectiveness of healthcare centers.