Investigating Indicators of Waiting Time and Length of Stay in Emergency Departments

PURPOSE: To investigate potential indicators of patients’ waiting time and length of stay in emergency departments (ED) at the Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals in order to determine the causes of delayed patient care and to recommend clinical implications to achieve a better ED system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This exploratory study was conducted in the EDs at four tertiary hospitals of MOH. A random sample of 1360 people was tested from December 2019 to February 2020. Data included patient Canadian Triage Acuity and System (CTAS) level, registration time, triage time, physician examination time, decision time, and disposition time. Descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis, multiple linear regression analysis and Pearson correlation were used according to SPSS (version 24). RESULTS: The findings showed that 89.6% of total emergency patients were categorized as levels 3, 4 and 5. Around 73.5% of emergency patients stayed less than 4 hours due to registration or triage to disposition, while 26.5% of those patients stayed more than 4 hours. CONCLUSION: The majority of patients’ total stay in EDs was less than 4 hours. According to ED international standard of length of stay, this is appropriate. The highest effective indicator in total length of stay was the decision to disposition time in EDs.