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How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?

INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to evaluate patients’ threshold for waiting in an emergency department (ED) waiting room before leaving without being seen (LWBS). We analyzed whether willingness to wait was influenced by perceived illness severity, age, race, triage acuity level, or insurance status. MET...

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Autores principales: Shaikh, Sanober B., Jerrard, David A., Witting, Michael D., Winters, Michael E., Brodeur, Michael N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3555587/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23359833
http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2012.3.6895
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author Shaikh, Sanober B.
Jerrard, David A.
Witting, Michael D.
Winters, Michael E.
Brodeur, Michael N.
author_facet Shaikh, Sanober B.
Jerrard, David A.
Witting, Michael D.
Winters, Michael E.
Brodeur, Michael N.
author_sort Shaikh, Sanober B.
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to evaluate patients’ threshold for waiting in an emergency department (ED) waiting room before leaving without being seen (LWBS). We analyzed whether willingness to wait was influenced by perceived illness severity, age, race, triage acuity level, or insurance status. METHODS: We conducted this survey-based study from March to July 2010 at an urban academic medical center. After triage, patients were given a multiple-choice questionnaire, designed to ascertain how long they would wait for medical care. We collected data including age, gender, race, insurance status, and triage acuity level. We looked at the association between willingness to wait and these variables, using stratified analysis and logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 375 patients who were approached, 340 (91%) participated. One hundred seventy-one (51%) were willing to wait up to 2 hours before leaving, 58 (17%) would wait 2 to 8 hours, and 110 (32%) would wait indefinitely. No association was found between willingness to wait and race, gender, insurance status, or perceived symptom severity. Patients willing to wait >2 hours tended to be older than 25, have higher acuity, and prefer the study site ED. CONCLUSION: Many patients have a defined, limited period that they are willing to wait for emergency care. In our study, 50% of patients were willing to wait up to 2 hours before leaving the ED without being seen. This result suggests that efforts to reduce the percentage of patients who LWBS must factor in time limits.
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spelling pubmed-35555872013-01-28 How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen? Shaikh, Sanober B. Jerrard, David A. Witting, Michael D. Winters, Michael E. Brodeur, Michael N. West J Emerg Med Emergency Department Access INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to evaluate patients’ threshold for waiting in an emergency department (ED) waiting room before leaving without being seen (LWBS). We analyzed whether willingness to wait was influenced by perceived illness severity, age, race, triage acuity level, or insurance status. METHODS: We conducted this survey-based study from March to July 2010 at an urban academic medical center. After triage, patients were given a multiple-choice questionnaire, designed to ascertain how long they would wait for medical care. We collected data including age, gender, race, insurance status, and triage acuity level. We looked at the association between willingness to wait and these variables, using stratified analysis and logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 375 patients who were approached, 340 (91%) participated. One hundred seventy-one (51%) were willing to wait up to 2 hours before leaving, 58 (17%) would wait 2 to 8 hours, and 110 (32%) would wait indefinitely. No association was found between willingness to wait and race, gender, insurance status, or perceived symptom severity. Patients willing to wait >2 hours tended to be older than 25, have higher acuity, and prefer the study site ED. CONCLUSION: Many patients have a defined, limited period that they are willing to wait for emergency care. In our study, 50% of patients were willing to wait up to 2 hours before leaving the ED without being seen. This result suggests that efforts to reduce the percentage of patients who LWBS must factor in time limits. Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine School of Medicine 2012-12 /pmc/articles/PMC3555587/ /pubmed/23359833 http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2012.3.6895 Text en Copyright © 2012 the authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Emergency Department Access
Shaikh, Sanober B.
Jerrard, David A.
Witting, Michael D.
Winters, Michael E.
Brodeur, Michael N.
How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?
title How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?
title_full How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?
title_fullStr How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?
title_full_unstemmed How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?
title_short How Long Are Patients Willing to Wait in the Emergency Department Before Leaving Without Being Seen?
title_sort how long are patients willing to wait in the emergency department before leaving without being seen?
topic Emergency Department Access
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3555587/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23359833
http://dx.doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2012.3.6895
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