title: A national survey of observation units in the United States.
abstract: The objective of this study was to survey the use of observation units (OUs) in the United States. A written survey was mailed to every third hospital (sequential by zip code) in the United States. There was a 32.9% response to the survey (522 of 1588 hospitals). A total of 18.8% of hospitals had an OU with another 11.6% planning to open an OU. Those hospitals that had OUs had a higher overall ED census, higher rate of diversion of ambulances, and were more likely to be in metropolitan areas (P <.05), but there was no relationship to payor mix or to ED hospital admission rate. The OUs were characterized by a mean 4.8 years in existence, 57.3% ED administratively responsible, 59.4% ED clinically responsible, a mean of 1330 patients per year, an average length of stay of 15.3 hours, a 4.2 nurse-to-patient ratio, and 22.3% hospital admission rate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, E-19, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. maces@ccf.org
authors.forename: Sharon E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Mace
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Graff
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mikhail
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019370:Observation; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States