Non Urgent Visit to Emergency Department

Overview

The use of ED by patients with non-urgent conditions has largely been seen in many hospitals. However, in general, half of the patients who visit the ED are non-urgent conditions. Due to this, the ED continues to struggle with overcrowding. This study aimed to determine the common reasons for non-urgent visits and their management in the ED by analysing the past medical records between January 2024 to December 2024. The management includes triage time, consultation time, cross referrals, and time taken by cross referrals, admission and discharge status, admission and discharge criteria, time taken for admission and discharge decisions, and delay time and reason for delay.

Nurses must understand emergency department flow and patient management patterns to effectively interact with patients who present with varied healthcare needs. This retrospective study was conducted at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre to evaluate non-urgent visits to the Emergency Department. Data was collected from medical records (case sheets) of ER patient admissions between January 2024 to December 2024. The study focused on patients who were in the non-urgent (triage) category, excluding urgent category patients. The study analyzed triage management including triage time, consultation time, cross referrals, admission and discharge status and criteria, time taken for decisions, and reasons for delay.

Conditions

Eligibility