NHAMCS Validation of Emergency Severity Index as an Indicator of Emergency Department Resource Utilization.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Triage systems play a vital role in emergency department (ED) operations and can determine how well a given ED serves its local population. We sought to describe ED utilization patterns for different triage levels using the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) database.

Methods

We conducted a multi-year secondary analysis of the NHAMCS database from 2009-2011. National visit estimates were made using standard methods in Analytics Software and Solutions (SAS, Cary, NC). We compared patients in the mid-urgency range in regard to ED lengths of stay, hospital admission rates, and numbers of tests and procedures in comparison to lower or higher acuity levels.

Results

We analyzed 100,962 emergency visits (representing 402,211,907 emergency

SUBMITTER: Hocker MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6123086 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature