Time series analysis of emergency department length of stay per 8-hour shift.
BACKGROUND
The mean emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) is considered a measure of crowding. This paper measures the association between LOS and factors that potentially contribute to LOS measured over consecutive shifts in the ED: shift 1 (7:00 am to 3:00 pm), shift 2 (3:00 pm to 11:00 pm), and shift 3 (11:00 pm to 7:00 am).


METHODS



METHODS
University, inner-city teaching hospital.


METHODS
91,643 adult ED patients between October 12, 2005 and April 30, 2007.


METHODS
For each shift, we measured the numbers of (1) ED nurses on duty, (2) discharges, (3) discharges on the previous shift, (4) resuscitation cases, (5) admissions, (6) intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and (7) LOS on the previous shift. For each 24-hour period, we measured the (1) number of elective surgical admissions and (2) hospital occupancy. We used autoregressive integrated moving average time series analysis to retrospectively measure the association between LOS and the covariates.


RESULTS
For all 3 shifts, LOS in minutes increased by 1.08 (95% confidence interval 0.68, 1.50) for every additional 1% increase in hospital occupancy. For every additional admission from the ED, LOS in minutes increased by 3.88 (2.81, 4.95) on shift 1, 2.88 (1.54, 3.14) on shift 2, and 4.91 (2.29, 7.53) on shift 3. LOS in minutes increased 14.27 (2.01, 26.52) when 3 or more patients were admitted to the ICU on shift 1. The numbers of nurses, ED discharges on the previous shift, resuscitation cases, and elective surgical admissions were not associated with LOS on any shift.


CONCLUSIONS
Key factors associated with LOS include hospital occupancy and the number of hospital admissions that originate in the ED. This particularly applies to ED patients who are admitted to the ICU.
Boston University Medical Center, Department of Emergency Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
Niels K
NK
Rathlev
Dan
D
Obendorfer
Laura F
LF
White
Casey
C
Rebholz
Brendan
B
Magauran
Willie
W
Baker
Andrew
A
Ulrich
Linda
L
Fisher
Jonathan
J
Olshaker