ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Effect of emergency department fast track on emergency department length of stay: a case–control study

J Considine¹, M Kropman², E Kelly², C Winter²

¹ Deakin University, Northern Health Clinical Partnership, Victoria, Australia
² Emergency Department, the Northern Hospital, Northern Health, Victoria, Australia

Correspondence to:
Dr J Considine, Deakin University, Northern Health Clinical Partnership, Burwood, Victoria 3125, Australia; julie.considine{at}deakin.edu.au

Objective: To examine the effect of fast track on emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS).

Design and setting: Pair-matched case–control design in a public teaching hospital in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.

Participants: Patients treated by the ED fast track (cases) between 1 January and 31 March 2007 were compared with patients treated by the usual ED processes (controls) from 1 July to 15 November 2006 (n = 822 matched pairs).

Intervention: ED fast track was established in November 2006 and focused on the management of patients with non-urgent complaints.

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was ED LOS for fast-track patients. Secondary outcomes were waiting times and ED LOS for other ED patients.

Results: Median ED LOS for non-admitted patients was 132 minutes (interquartile range (IQR) 83–205.25) for controls and 116 minutes (IQR 75.5–159.0) for cases (p<0.01). Fast-track patients had a significantly higher incidence of discharge within 2 h (53% vs 44%, p<0.01) and 4 h (92% vs 84%, p<0.01).

Conclusions: ED fast track decreased ED LOS for non-admitted patients without compromising waiting times and ED LOS for other ED patients.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Primary survey

Geoff Hughes
Emerg. Med. J. 2008 25: 787. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]