Development and Evaluation of Management Programs to Reduce the Average Length of Stay (LOS) in Emergency Departments (ED)

Objectives: To examine the effectiveness of a computer-based Emergency Auto-Consultation System (EACS) in reducing additional LOS caused by specialty consultation. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Data collection and investigation of electronic records gathered during the six months periods before and after the implementation of the Emergency Medical Center residency management program (April-September 2012 and October 2012-March 2013, respectively). The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 18.0 program which uses descriptive statistics, 𐍇2-test, t-test, ANOVA, and ANCOVA. Findings: The total number of subjects was 40,578 patients; the control group consisted of 20,982 patients and the experimental group consisted of 19,596 patients. The control group was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The emergency medicine department was the most common department (36.1%). According to a triage classification tool, semi-emergencies (87.6%) were the most common in the population. Additionally, 99.7% of patients did not receive CPR, and 99.5% of patients did not receive ventilator treatment. On the other hand, the experimental group was 48.4% male and 51.6% female. The emergency medicine department was the most common department (36.6%). According to a triage classification tool, semi-emergencies (85.8%) were the most common in the population. Also, 99.7% of patients did not receive CPR, and 99.4% did not receive ventilator treatment. The control group’s average LOS in ED was 130.53 min±107.87, and the experimental group’s LOS was 114.48±93.42. This indicates a statistically significant shortening of LOS (F=380.450, p<.001). Improvements/Applications: Reducing the average LOS in emergency by reducing the bed occupancy rate and overcrowding will increase patient satisfaction.