title: Are patients admitted to emergency departments with regular supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) treated appropriately?
abstract: Regular supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is frequently encountered in clinical practice. Guidelines are available from the National Service Framework (NSF) for the treatment of patients attending emergency departments (ED) with SVT. These recommend a thyroid-function test (TFT) and arrhythmia electrocardiography (ECG), and referral to a heart-rhythm specialist on discharge. Hospital admission is rarely required. In our multicentre study, we examined the implementation of these guidelines among patients attending the ED with SVT. Only 34% of patients had specialist referrals, with an average wait of 50.3 days (the majority of delays resulted from referral requests from general practitioners). A history of previous SVT, the mode of tachycardia termination, patient age and/or comorbidities were similar for the 27 (23.5%) patients who were admitted overnight. Of these, 15 (13%) of the total 115 patients who attended ED with regular SVT were referred for Holter monitoring despite having ECGs demonstrating arrhythmia. Low referral rates, unnecessary investigations and admissions indicate a need for improvement for better patient care and to minimise healthcare costs. We have formulated a standard operating procedure, which will be available via the College of Emergency Medicine website.
authors.affiliation: Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK. sawhneyvin@googlemail.com
authors.forename: Vinit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sawhney
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Corden
authors.forename: Kibria
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abdul-Mukith
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Richard John
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Schilling
mesh_terms: D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013617:Tachycardia, Supraventricular / Q000628:therapy*; D013960:Thyroid Function Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: National Service Framework; emergency department admission; regular SVT