Hospital Arrival For Patients Research Articles

ED Crowding Lengthens Time to Antibiotics for CAP Patients

Administration of antibiotics within 4 hours of hospital arrival for patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and performance of percutaneous

Temporal trends and factors associated with extent of delay to hospital arrival in patients with acute myocardial infarction: The Worcester Heart Attack Study

Factors associated with delay to hospital arrival after the onset of symptoms suggestive of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were examined in the late 1960s and 1970s, but recent data concerning these characteristics are limited. The purpose of the present study was to examine overall and temporal distributions of the extent of patients' delay from the time of onset of AMI symptoms to hospital arrival and factors associated with delay in seeking medical care from a multihospital, population-based perspective. Review of medical records was undertaken of patients hospitalized with a discharge diagnosis of AMI in 16 teaching and community hospitals in Worcester, Mass. in 1986, 1988, and 1990. The study sample comprised 1279 patients hospitalized with validated AMI in whom data concerning extent of patient delay from onset of symptoms suggestive of AMI to hospital arrival were available. The average delay between onset of symptoms suggestive of AMI and arrival at local emergency departments did not change significantly with time (average of 4.1 hours in 1986, 4.0 hours in 1988, and 4.6 hours in 1990). The median delay was 2.0 hours during each of these years. Fifty percent of patients with AMI went to area-wide emergency departments within 2 hours of the onset of acute symptoms, 22% between 2 and 4 hours, and 28% delayed >4 hours. Results of a multivariable regression analysis showed that older age, history of diabetes, type of medical insurance coverage and previous AMI were significantly associated with delays in hospital arrival of >2 hours. Relatively similar factors and admission to a teaching hospital were associated with delays of >6 hours in arrival at the hospital after the onset of AMI symptoms. The results of this community-wide study provide insights into temporal trends and factors associated with the extent of delay to hospital arrival in patients with AMI. The present results suggest that surveillance of these trends and efforts to reduce the extent of delay to hospital arrival in patients with AMI should continue.

Time of Hospital Presentation in Patients With Acute Stroke

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Although new treatments are being studied, most must be given early in the course of stroke to be effective. This study was performed to identify factors associated with early hospital arrival in patients with stroke. As part of the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator Pilot Study, information from patients, patients' families, or, most commonly, the medical record was gathered on all patients presenting to the hospital within 24 hours of the onset of stroke. A total of 14 hospitals participated. Three were university hospitals, and 11 were community hospitals with and without university affiliation. The main outcome measure was the time from stroke onset to hospital arrival. Of 2099 patients screened, adequate time data were available in 1159. Thirty-nine percent presented to the hospital 90 minutes or less after symptom onset and 59% within 3 hours. Early hospital arrival after stroke was greatly influenced by the type of first medical contact and, to a lesser degree, by the patient's location at the time of the stroke and the time of the day at which the stroke occurred. Hospital arrival was fastest in patients using 911 as their first medical contact (mean, 155 minutes; median, 84 minutes) vs their personal physician (mean, 379 minutes; median, 270 minutes; P < .0001) or a study hospital (mean, 333 minutes; median, 212 minutes; P < .0001). Time from symptom onset to arrival was longer for patients having the stroke at night compared with patients having a stroke in the morning (P < .05), in the afternoon (P < .01), or in the evening (P < .0001). Time to hospital arrival was significantly longer for patients having the stroke at home than for patients having the stroke at work (P < .01) or in an unknown place (P < .05). Gender, age, race, and presence of brain hemorrhage had no significant effect. As many as 50% of patients with stroke arrive at the hospital within 3 hours of symptom onset. Our data indicate that strategies to increase the use of 911 systems may have a high yield with regard to recruitment into urgent treatment protocols for stroke.

Components of delay time in suspected acute myocardial infarction with particular emphasis on patient delay

Two hundred and thirty-four patients admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU) were interviewed a few days after arrival in hospital to determine reasons for patient delay and the various components of total delay time from onset of symptoms to arrival in CCU. Of the three major components of delay, decision time (time from onset of symptoms to decision to go to hospital), and hospital procedure time (time from arrival in hospital to arrival in the CCU), were of the same magnitude, 1 h 15 min and 1 h 30 min (median), whereas the median time for preparation and transportation to hospital was somewhat shorter, being 45 min. Decision time appeared to be similar in patients with confirmed and non-confirmed acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and was not associated with intensity of pain or infarct size. Half of the patients hesitated to go to hospital, which resulted in a prolonged decision delay (3 h). It is concluded that patient indecision to seek medical help is the most important reason for delay in hospital arrival in patients with suspected AMI.

The prehospital phase of acute myocardial infarction in the era of thrombolysis

To evaluate the factors affecting the time between symptom onset and hospital arrival in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), we gave a detailed questionnaire to all who were admitted or transferred with AMI from January 1988 to February 1989. In these 126 patients (94 men, 32 women) the mean prehospital time was S.9 ± 11.0 hours (median 2.0, range 0.4 to 69.0). The time between symptom onset and reaching a decision that medical care should be sought was 62% of the mean prehospital time. In 100 (79%) patients, the prehospital time was ≤6 hours; of these, 61 (61%) were retrospectively judged to have been optimal candidates for lytic therapy. Stepwise multiple regression selected the following 4 variables as independent predictors of prehospital time: slow symptom progression; low income; female gender; and advanced age. All of these variables are predictive (p <0.03) of increased prehospital time; absence of prior AMI was of borderline additional significance (p = 0.053). Similarly, logistic regression analysis selected slow symptom progression, female gender and low income as significant (p ≤50.02) independent predictors of prehospital time >6 hours. The logistic regression model incorporating these 3 variables had a sensitivity of S4%, a specificity of 95% and a positive predictive value of 72% in identifying patients with prehospital time >6 hours. Thus, these data indicate it is possible to characterize patients likely to experience undue prehospital delay during AMI, which may be of importance to future public education efforts.