Translational Health Reports

The Causes of Long-Term Hospitalization of Patients in the Emergency Ward of Rouhani and Beheshti Hospital

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mir Saeid Ramezani 1
Ghazaleh Nikjouyan 2
Mehdi Mohammadian 3
Farhad Bagherian 4
Gholamhosein Hajiaghaei Amir 1
Ali Alizadeh Khatir 1
Hemmatollah Gholinia 1

1 Clinical Research Development Unit of Rouhani Hospital, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

2 Student Research Committee, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

3 Department of Emergency Medicine, Babol University of Medical sciences, Babol, Iran

4 Clinical Research Development Unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/thr.2025.236741
Abstract
Introduction: The length of stay in the emergency department (ED) starts from entering the unit and does not end until the patient is discharged home, admitted to the hospital or until transferred to another department or other treatment center. This period of time indicates the optimal management of beds in the ED. It is used as a performance index to evaluate the quality of care in the ED and the evidence shows that a stay in the ED of more than 6 hours is associated with an increase in mortality and morbidity. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the causes of long-term stay (more than 12 hours) patients in the ED of Ayatollah Rouhani Babol educational and treatment center is designed.
Research method: This research was cross-sectional-retrospective. The study population consisted of all patients who referred to the ED of Rohani Babol Hospital in 2022. Sampling was done in the form of the entire census of the studied community. Data was collected using a checklist from Rouhani Hospital in Babol city. The collection tool was a pre-made checklist that included basic and demographic information of the patients. If a file did not have the desired information, or was incomplete, it was excluded from the study.
Results: This study was conducted on 400 patients who referred to the ED of Ayatollah Rouhani and Shahid Beheshti hospitals, who stayed in the emergency ward for more than 12 hours. In this study, the average duration of hospitalization until the assignment of the patient by the emergency medicine specialist was 57.8±82.6 minutes. The average time from entering to leaving the ED was 31.8 ± 21.8 hours for men and 33.8 ± 24.4 hours for women. The average time from entering to leaving the ED in patients with a history of hypertension was 38.9 ± 27.1 hours, with a history of diabetes 37.6 ± 27.3 hours, and with a history of heart disease 36.5 ± 24.3 hours. It was statistically significant (p=0.001), (p=0.007) and (p=0.040) respectively). The difference between the average time of entering and leaving the ED with the way the patient left the emergency ward was not statistically significant (p=0.636). However, a statistically significant difference was observed between the average time of entering and exiting the ED with the level of triage (p=0.004) and the type of disease (p=0.001). The results of the one-way analysis of variance test showed that the difference in the average duration of hospitalization in the emergency medicine service until leaving the emergency medicine service, the difference in the average duration of assignment by emergency medicine to the visit of the specialist assistant (p=0.814) and the difference in the average duration of required tests From the request to the answer to the test (p=0.454), no significant statistical difference was observed in the age groups. However, the difference in the average time between entering and leaving the ED in the age groups was found to be statistically significant (p=0.001).
Conclusion: The length of stay is influenced by various demographic and clinical factors. Therefore, it is possible to predict the length of stay by applying data mining techniques on hospital admission data. This work can be a suitable tool for planning and optimal allocation of hospital resources.

Keywords

Emergency
Length of stay
Hospitalization

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