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RCEM 2016 abstracts
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12
VALIDATION OF THE SHORT FORM OF THE INTERNATIONAL CROWDING MEASURE IN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS (ICMED): INTERNATIONAL STUDY
  1. A Boyle1,
  2. S Richter1,
  3. P Atkinson2,
  4. R Clouston2,
  5. G Stoica2,
  6. C Basaure Verdejo3,
  7. A Wakai4,
  8. E Chan5,
  9. K Grewal5,
  10. P Gilligan6,
  11. I Higginson7,
  12. P Liston8,
  13. V Newcombe9,
  14. V Norton10
  1. 1Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
  2. 2Emergency Medicine, St John Regional Hospital, St John, New Brunswick, Canada
  3. 3Hospital clínico Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  4. 4Emergency Department, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, IRELAND
  5. 5Southlake Regional Health Centre, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
  6. 6Emergency Medicine, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  7. 7Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK
  8. 8Dublin City University, Dublin, IRELAND
  9. 9Emergency Department, Scripps Mercy Hospital, San Diego, California, USA
  10. 10Scripps Mercy Hospital, San Diego, California, USA

Abstract

Objectives & Background There is little consensus on the best way to measure emergency department crowding. We have previously developed a consensus based measure, the International Crowding Measure in Emergency Departments (ICMED). This measure has both flow and non-flow items, and also contains items which measure Input, Throughput and Output. We aimed to externally validate a short form of the ICMED against emergency physician's perceptions of crowding and danger across a wide variety of Emergency Departments. Face validity is important to support implementation of any measure

Methods We performed an observational validation study in seven emergency departments in five different countries. We recorded sICMED observations and the most senior available emergency physician's perceptions of crowding and danger at the same time. We performed a times series regression model to account for clustering and correlation.

Results 397 data points were analysed. The sICMED showed moderate positive correlations with emergency physician's perceptions of crowding r=0.4110, p<0.05) and danger (r=0.4566, p<0.05.) There was considerable variation in the performance of the sICMED between different emergency departments. The sICMED was only slightly better than measuring occupancy or emergency department boarding time.

Conclusion The short form of the ICMED has moderate face validity in measuring crowding. This is an important first step in validating this measure. The measure performs less well in Emergency Departments that are constantly crowded.⇓

Figure 1
Figure 1
  • Trauma

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2016-206402.12

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