Benefits of emergency department routine blood test performance on patients whose allocated triage category is not time critical: a retrospective study.
Emergency department
Length of stay
Point of care test
Routine blood tests
Journal
BMC health services research
ISSN: 1472-6963
Titre abrégé: BMC Health Serv Res
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101088677
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
17 Oct 2024
17 Oct 2024
Historique:
received:
06
05
2024
accepted:
19
09
2024
medline:
18
10
2024
pubmed:
18
10
2024
entrez:
17
10
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Emergency department clinicians, and particularly nurses in triage, frequently perform routine blood tests on patients whose allocated triage category is not time critical (triage categories 3, 4 and 5 of the Australasian Triage Scale). Some observers have questioned the utility of routine blood testing in these acute healthcare settings given the cost and workload implications. A quantitative method using retrospective observational design was utilised guided by STROBE checklist. Electronic medical records of patient data collected at a quaternary Australian metropolitan hospital emergency department were reviewed. A total of 74,878 adult patients attended the emergency department between 1st January and 31st December 2021 and a sample of 383 were randomly allocated for this study. Of the 383 patients included, 51% were female, age ranges were 18-99 years (mean 51.6). The majority were Australasian Triage scale (ATS) triage category 3 (55%) and 62% had blood tests performed. Blood test performance was found to be associated with advancing age (p < 0.001) but not with department occupancy as determined by the national emergency department overcrowding scale (p = 0.230). Blood testing in the emergency department in triaged non-time critical patients was found to be frequent thereby affecting nurses' already stretched time resource. Older patients were found to be more likely to have a blood test. There is a positive correlation between blood test performance and length of stay in the emergency department.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39420308
doi: 10.1186/s12913-024-11612-w
pii: 10.1186/s12913-024-11612-w
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Observational Study
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1252Informations de copyright
© 2024. Crown.
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