Predicting early hospital admissions for emergency department patients at the time of triage

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Objective: This study aimed to determine factors predicting hospital admissions at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Emergency Department (ED), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at the Emergency Department of King Abdulaziz Medical City among adult patients aged ≥14 years triaged in ED and arriving by either paramedic transport or self-referral and presented to ED from 01/01/2021 to 01/01/2022. The data were collected from the patient's medical records and a pre-designed checklist was prepared to collect data. Results: The majority of patients (88.7%) arrived at the ED walk-ins, as for the patient acuity, a substantial segment of the population (86.9%) fell into category 3. Exactly half of the patients reported no known comorbidities. The prior visit to the emergency department within the past 72 hours was documented in 12.3% of the cases. As for the patients' outcomes post-triage, a large proportion (78.4%) were discharged after their ED visit. The majority of emergency visits were associated with no complications (92.5%), while morbidity was reported among 4.2% and mortality among 3.4% of the visits. The rate of hospital admission was significantly higher among patients aged 25-34 years and 55-64 years, who arrived walk-in, who had patient acuity category "3" and had no previous ED Visit < 72 hours (p=˂0.05). Conclusion: It was found that being bedridden, having dementia, having no prior ED visits within 72 hours, and having end-stage renal disease on dialysis were risk factors for hospital admission.