New Intervention Model of Regional Transfer Network System to Alleviate Crowding of Regional Emergency Medical Center

Emergency department (ED) crowding is a serious problem in most tertiary hospitals in Korea. Although several intervention models have been established to alleviate ED crowding, they are limited to a single hospital-based approach. This study was conducted to determine whether the new regional intervention model could alleviate ED crowding in a regional emergency medical center. This study was designed as a “before and after study” and included patients who visited the tertiary hospital ED from November 2011 to October 2013. One tertiary hospital and 32 secondary hospitals were included in the study. A transfer coordinator conducted inter-hospital transfers from a tertiary hospital to a secondary hospital for suitable patients. A total of 1,607 and 2,591 patients transferred from a tertiary hospital before and after the study, respectively (P < 0.001). We found that the median ED length of stay (LOS) decreased significantly from 3.68 hours (interquartile range [IQR], 1.85 to 9.73) to 3.20 hours (IQR, 1.62 to 8.33) in the patient group after implementation of the Regional Transfer Network System (RTNS) (P < 0.001). The results of multivariate analysis showed a negative association between implementation of the RTNS and ED LOS (beta coefficient -0.743; 95% confidence interval -0.914 to -0.572; P < 0.001). In conclusion, the ED LOS in the tertiary hospital decreased after implementation of the RTNS.