Long emergency department length of stay: A concept analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Emergency Department (ED) Length of stay (LOS) has been associated with poor patient outcomes, which has led to the implementation of time targets designed to keep EDLOS below a specific limit. The cut-offs defining long EDLOS varies across settings and seem to be arbitrarily chosen. This study aimed to clarify the meaning of long EDLOS.

Methods: A concept analysis using the Walker and Avant approach was conducted. It included a literature search aiming to identify all uses of the concept, resulting in a set of defining attributes and a way of measuring the concept empirically.

Results: Long EDLOS was primarily used as proxy for other phenomena, e.g. boarding or crowding. The definitions had cut-offs ranging between 4 and 48 h. The attributes defining long EDLOS was waiting, a crowded ED environment and an inefficient organization.

Discussion: Time targets are probably more suitable when directed towards and tailored for specific sub-groups of the ED population.

Keywords: Concept analysis; Emergency department; Emergency nursing; Length of stay; Performance measurement.