Length of Time Emergency Department Patients Wait for a Hospital Bed After a Decision to Admit
Identifying Attributes
Care Settings
Country
Publishing Organisation
Type of Quality Indicator
IOM Quality Dimension
Setting-Specific Domain
Defining Attributes
Definition
Time from when it's decided a patient will stay in the hospital to when they leave the emergency department to go to a hospital bed.
Numerator
(Emergency department last contact time) - (Decision to admit time).
Denominator
Median and 90th percentile time in hours.
Exclusions
Patients are excluded if a decision to admit to the hospital did not occur. This includes patients who: were discharged directly from the emergency department, were transferred to another facility, left the emergency department against medical advice, died in the context of their emergency department visit. Patients are excluded if either time stamp in the calculation is missing. Patients are excluded if their recorded wait between the decision to admit and last contact is greater than 72 hours (3 days) or a recognised data entry error occurred.
Use of Risk Adjustment
Risk Adjustments
None
Stratifications
By metric type (median, 90th percentile), hospital and hospital type (large urban trauma, large urban, medium urban, children's).
Collection and Reporting Attributes
Type of Data Collection
Data Collection Methods
National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS)
Frequency of Data Collection
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
Reporting Methods
Interactive infographic: focus.hqca.ca/charts/length-of-time-admitted-patients-wait-for-hospital-bed/