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Social Medicine

Managing waiting in the emergency department - an example from practice

Iliya Katrandzhiev, Boryana Naydenova

Abstract

The emergency department should offer timely care to patients by a dedicated team of specialists - doctors and nurses. The aim of this study is to present an example of waiting management practice in the emergency department of a university hospital. Material and Methods: Data were collected on patients admitted to the emergency department of the university hospital over a 1-year period. 37407 patients were studied. The results were processed statistically with SPSS v. 20.0 using descriptive analysis and correlation analyses. Results: The mean age of the studied patients was 47.3 years (± 27.5), with a slight male predominance (53.0%). The mean duration of emergency department visit was 29.2 min (± 27.1 min). There was a significant difference in visit duration according to patients' diagnosis (p<0.001). There was also a correlation between the age of the patients and the duration of the visit (r=0.365; p<0.001). Conclusion: Emergency department wait management is essential for patient satisfaction and the effectiveness of subsequent treatment.

Keywords

wait management, emergency department, patients

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14748/sm.v29i4.9343

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