Baseline characteristics of the consultations (n=473)
| Patient’s condition (chronic) | Total (n=473) | |
| Age (years), (med (IQR)) | 70.5 | (56.6–80.5) |
| Sex (male), (n (%)) | 261 | (55.2) |
| Case severity index (points), (med (IQR)) | 0.9 | (0.6–1.3) |
| Patient’s condition (acuity) | ||
| Triage category, (n (%)) | ||
| Highly urgent | 15 | (3.2) |
| Urgent | 224 | (47.4) |
| Semiurgent | 210 | (44.4) |
| Non-urgent | 24 | (5.1) |
| Resuscitation bay, (n (%)) | 47 | (9.9) |
| Systolic BP <90 mm Hg, (n (%)) | 17 | (3.6) |
| HR deviation, >110 or <50 bpm, (n (%)) | 2 | (0.4) |
| Oxygen saturation <90%, (n (%)) | 19 | (4.0) |
| Physician characteristics, (n (%)) | ||
| Highly experienced (>10 years) | 95 | (20.1) |
| Experienced (>5–10 years) | 146 | (30.9) |
| Limited experience (>2–5 years) | 219 | (46.3) |
| Unexperienced (≤2 years) | 13 | (2.7) |
| Context characteristics | ||
| NEDOCS mean, (med (IQR)) | 49.5 | (33.8–68.0) |
| Tiredness (1: awake, 5: tired), (med (IQR)) | 3.0 | (2–3) |
| Workload (1: low, 5: high), (med (IQR)) | 3.0 | (3–4) |
| Night admission, (n (%)) | 138 | (29.2) |
| Weekend consultation, (n (%)) | 111 | (23.5) |
| Subjective case difficulty | ||
| Uncertainty (1: low, 5: high), (med (IQR)) | 2.0 | (1–3) |
| Difficulty (1: low, 5: high), (med (IQR)) | 2.0 | (2–3) |
| Unfamiliarity (1: familiar, 5: unfamiliar), (med (IQR)) | 2.0 | (1–3) |
| Outcome | ||
| Total diagnostic ED resources, (med (IQR)) | 1172 | (852–1645) |
med, median; NEDOCS, National Emergency Department Overcrowding Score.