Factors Affecting Length of Stay in Pediatric Emergency Department in Zagazig University Hospital

Abstract

Background: Emergency medicine now is recognized as an essential part of public health service. As the services provided by emergency departments (EDs) increase and the management process becomes more complicated, patients stay in EDs for longer periods and EDs become more crowded. A number of studies have discussed the adverse impacts of ED crowding, which include prolonged waiting times, increased complications, and increased mortality. Objective: The aim of this work was to analyze factors affecting length of stay (LOS) in the pediatric ED. Patients and methods: This Cross-sectional study was conducted in the Pediatric Emergency Unit of Zagazig University Hospitals, from July 2019 until December 2019. Assuming that rate of admission of children in Emergency Department is 200 cases/month, so a comprehensive sample of 1200 children was included in the study. Results: The age of the studied cases ranged from 1 month to 12 years with mean 3.62 years. Regarding sex, 53.4% were female. In our study, the 43.8% of patients were discharged from the ED in the current study. This study showed that 71.8% of the studied cases came to hospital from 9 am to 9 pm. There was no statistically significant difference between length of stay and sex. In the present study, mean value of length of stay (hours) was low among discharged patients (0.20 ± 0.59) than admitted patients (0.51± 0.58). Conclusion: We concluded that several factors are associated with high average emergency department LOS. High LOS may lead to increases in expenditures and may have implications for patient safety, whereas certain organizational changes, communication improvement, and time management may have a positive effect on it.