The impact of a multimodal intervention on emergency department crowding and patient flow

Table 3 Patient dispositions in the study periods

	Pre-intervention period n = 31,891	Intervention period n = 32,121	Odds ratio (95% CI)	p value^a
One or more imaging procedures requested	15,558 (48.8)	15,550 (48.4)	0.99 (0.96–1.02)	0.344
Hospital admission	8467 (26.5)	8620 (26.8)	(0.98–1.05)	0.413
Cardiology^b	1742 (39.6)	1636 36.7)	0.88 (0.81–0.96)	0.005
Surgery/traumatology^c	1407 (14.7)	1649 (16.1)	1.12 (1.04–1.21)	0.004
Neurology^d	1714 (45.7)	1550 (41.0)	0.82 (0.75–0.90)	< 0.001
Internal medicine^e	1376 (30.6)	1501 (32.3)	1.08 (0.99–1.18)	0.09
Other specialism^f	2228 (23.1)	2284 (25.3)	1.13 (1.06–1.21)	< 0.001
Dead at the ED	39 (0.1)	50 (0.2)	1.27 (0.84–1.94)	0.257
Admission LOS^g in minutes (IQR)	3940 (1539–8676)	3576 (1364–7411)		< 0.001

*Abbreviation: CI confidence interval, ED emergency department, IQR interquartile range
^ap values were calculated using χ² tests, except for median admission LOS, which was calculated using the Mann-Whitney U test
^bBased on 8850 cardiology visits, 4396 in the pre-intervention period and 4454 in the intervention period
^cBased on 19,620 surgery/traumatology visits, 9601 in the pre-intervention period and 10,219 in the intervention period
^dBased on 7535 neurology visits, 3750 in the pre-intervention period and 3785 in the intervention period
^eBased on 9140 internal medicine visits, 4493 in the pre-intervention period and 4647 in the intervention period
^fOther specialism: all visits for other specialism besides cardiology, internal medicine, neurology, and surgery, based on 18,667 visits, 9651 in the pre-intervention period and 9016 in the intervention period
^gBased on 16,475 admissions (8388 in the control period and 8087 in the intervention period)

ISSN: 1865-1380