Early in-hospital course of critically ill nontrauma patients in a resuscitation room of a German emergency department (OBSERvE2 study)

BACKGROUND: Management of critically ill nontrauma (CINT) patients in the resuscitation room of the emergency department (ED) is very challenging. Detailed data describing the patient characteristics and management of this population are lacking. This observational study describes the epidemiology, management and outcome in CINT ED patients in the resuscitation room. METHODS: This prospective, single center observational study included all adult patients who were consecutively admitted to the ED resuscitation room during 2 periods of 1 year (September 2014–August 2015 vs. September 2017– August 2018). Patient characteristics, out-of-hospital/in-hospital treatment, admission-related conditions, time intervals for diagnostics and interventions and outcome were recorded using a self-developed questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 34,303 patients in the first and 35,039 patients in the second study period were admitted to the ED, of whom 532 and 457 patients, respectively, were admitted to the nontrauma resuscitation room due to acute life-threatening conditions. The patient characteristics did not differ significantly between the study periods (male: 58% vs. 59%, age: 68 ± 17 years vs. 65 ± 17 years). Time intervals for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions were similar. The CINT patients during the second study period were treated faster compared to the first study period (end of ED management: 53 ± 33 min vs. 41 ± 24 min, p < 0.0001). The 30-day all-cause mortality was comparable (34.0% vs. 36.3%). CONCLUSION: Observation of critically ill patient management in the ED resuscitation room showed reliable results between both study periods. Structured ED management guidelines for CINT patients may provide comparable results at one institution. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00101-021-00962-3) contains an additional table and the evaluation chart. The article and the supplementary material are available at www.springermedizin.de. Please enter the article title in the search box; the supplementary material is available with the article under “Supplementary Information”.