Assessment of Performance Index of Emergency Department in a Hospital in Tehran, Iran

Background: Evaluating and monitoring the performance of emergency departments (EDs) are steps in one of the most important processes to improving the efficiency of hospitals. Indicators such as patient wait time until being visited by a doctor, patient wait time from the order until admission, percentage of patients with a determined order, time of conversion of a patient’s condition, time of physical exit of discharged patients from ED, percentage of discharge with personal responsibility, and percentage of unsuccessful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have been used for this measurement.Objective: The current study compared performance indicators in Baqiyatallah Hospital from December 2011 to June 2015.Methods: For this cross-sectional, retrospective study, the study population contained completed checklists of performance indicators in Baqiyatallah Hospital’s ED from December 2011 to June 2015. Five indicators were selected and analyzed using SPSS software and χ2 and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests.Results: The mean ED performance indicators showed that 71.72% ± 13.29 of patients were determined within 6 hours, 57.53% ± 27.54 were discharged within 12 hours of ED admission, 63.36% ± 12.74 had unsuccessful CPR, 4.57% ± 0.84 left the ED with personal responsibility, mean duration of triage level 1 was 1 minute ± 0.55, mean duration of triage level 2 was 2.83 minutes ± 0.48, mean duration of triage level 3 was 8.58 ± 13.09 minutes, mean duration of triage level 4 was 19.24 minutes ± 13.24, and mean duration of triage level 5 was 40.53 minutes ± 11.66. Statistical analysis of the results showed significant differences in all indicators.Conclusion: The general performance of the Baqiyatallah Hospital ED was estimated to be favorable, and the general process of change during the study was positive compared to previous years; however, the level and quality of services can be increased through some proposed means.