Publication:
Emergency severity level-3 patient flow based on point-of-care testing improves patient outcomes

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Date

2021-09-16

Authors

Jimenez-Barragan, Marta
Rodriguez-Oliva, Manuel
Sanchez-Mora, Catalina
Navarro-Bustos, Carmen
Fuentes-Cantero, Sandra
Martin-Perez, Salomon
Garrido-Castilla, Jose M.
Undabeytia-Lopez, Luisa
Luque-Cid, Antonio
Miguel-Melendez, Juan de

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Elsevier
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Abstract

Background: Overcrowding of the Emergency Department is rapidly becoming a global challenge and a major source of concern for emergency physicians. The desire to improve Emergency Department throughput requires novel approaches to patient flow. Materials and methods: We conducted a prospective and cluster-randomized study, to evaluate the impact in patient outcomes of a new patient flow based on Point-of-Care Testing (POCT). A total of 380 Emergency Severity Level-3 patients were enrolled and studied in two different groups, interventional arm (laboratory analyses performed on POCT analyzers implemented in the Emergency Department) or control arm (central laboratory). The primary outcome was the Emergency Department length of stay. Secondary outcome included the time to first medical intervention, the laboratory turnaround time and the time to disposition decision. Readmission within the 7 days after discharge was also calculated. Results: Length of stay significantly decreased by 88.50 min (from 247.00 to 158.50), time to disposition decision by 89.00 min (from 192.00 to 103.00) and laboratory turnaround time by 67.11 min (from 89.84 to 22.73) in the POCT group. No increase in readmission was found. Conclusion: Our strategy based on POCT represents a good approach to optimize patient flow in the Emergency Department and it should be seen as a starting point for further studies focusing on improving throughput.

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MeSH Terms

Humans
Length of stay
Patient discharge
Patient readmission
Prospective studies
Point-of-care testing
Emergency service, Hospital
Physicians

DeCS Terms

Alta del paciente
Estudios prospectivos
Humanos
Médicos
Pruebas en el punto de atención
Readmisión del paciente
Servicio de urgencia en hospital
Tiempo de internación

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Keywords

Point-of-care, Emergency department, Overcrowding, Servicio de urgencia en hospital, Sistemas de atención de punto

Citation

Jimenez-Barragan M, Rodriguez-Oliva M, Sanchez-Mora C, Navarro-Bustos C, Fuentes-Cantero S, Martin-Perez S, et al. Emergency severity level-3 patient flow based on point-of-care testing improves patient outcomes. Clin Chim Acta. 2021 Dec;523:144-151