Clinical trial NCT02754245: ED Overcrowding Validation Study
Official title: A Validation Study of Emergency Department Crowding Estimation
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Emergency Department Overcrowding
Keywords: multicenter study
emergency department
overcrowding status
estimation tool
validation
Lead sponsor: Baylor Research Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: JPS Health Network
name: Baylor University
First posted: 2016-04-28
Enrollment: 55000
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: all adult patients visiting any one of the six participating sites (one JPS ED or urgent care clinic or one of five Baylor emergency departments or urgent care clinics) during the allocated one month time period

Brief summary: The aim of this study is to externally validate a new emergency department overcrowding estimation tool (SONET) developed at John Peter Smith Health Network (JPS).

Detailed description: In recent years, emergency department (ED) overcrowding has become more and more common in regional and tertiary referral hospitals. ED overcrowding status significantly affects ED operational efficiency, resulting in ambulance diversion, increased ED 72h return visits, patient satisfaction, and left without being seen (LWBS) rates.

Several estimation tools were derived to determine ED overcrowding status using various operational parameters such as, but not limited to, total number of ED patients, total ED admission holds, nursing staff, and patient injury severity. However, these tools cannot precisely evaluate ED overcrowding status, nor show strong correlations with ED operational inefficiency. The National Emergency Department Overcrowding Study (NEDOCS) is a widely used estimation tool to determine ED overcrowding status with relatively high consistency rates. However, the study was not able to evaluate interrater reliability since no standard definition of overcrowding existed.

An ED overcrowding estimation tool, SONET, was developed and internally validated at JPS and showed more consistency and accuracy when compared to estimation rates utilizing NEDOCS. All things considered, it is worthwhile to perform a survey study to determine the interrater variability between different evaluators for an ED overcrowding evaluation tool, one utilizing all possible collectible operational variables. In order to minimize the bias and further determine the accuracy of evaluating ED overcrowding status, a multi-center external validation study is warranted. This study will extend to six sites for the purpose of externally validating JPS' novel ED overcrowding estimation tool, SONET, by comparing its overcrowding estimation rates with those derived utilizing NEDOCS.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* all adult patients visiting the emergency department or urgent care clinic at any one of the six participating sites during the allocated one month time period

Exclusion Criteria:

* those who do not meet inclusion criteria

Primary outcomes:
measure: left without being seen disposition chart review
timeFrame: 30 days
measure: emergency department 72 hour return chart review
timeFrame: 30 days
measure: emergency department mortality
timeFrame: 30 days
measure: hospital mortality
timeFrame: 30 days
measure: emergency department length of stay
timeFrame: 30 days
Secondary outcomes:
measure: patient satisfaction survey
timeFrame: 30 days
measure: physician empathy scale
timeFrame: 30 days
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
References:
citation: Bernstein SL, Verghese V, Leung W, Lunney AT, Perez I. Development and validation of a new index to measure emergency department crowding. Acad Emerg Med. 2003 Sep;10(9):938-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2003.tb00647.x.
citation: Weiss SJ, Derlet R, Arndahl J, Ernst AA, Richards J, Fernandez-Frackelton M, Schwab R, Stair TO, Vicellio P, Levy D, Brautigan M, Johnson A, Nick TG. Estimating the degree of emergency department overcrowding in academic medical centers: results of the National ED Overcrowding Study (NEDOCS). Acad Emerg Med. 2004 Jan;11(1):38-50. doi: 10.1197/j.aem.2003.07.017.
citation: Epstein SK, Tian L. Development of an emergency department work score to predict ambulance diversion. Acad Emerg Med. 2006 Apr;13(4):421-6. doi: 10.1197/j.aem.2005.11.081.
citation: McCarthy ML, Aronsky D, Jones ID, Miner JR, Band RA, Baren JM, Desmond JS, Baumlin KM, Ding R, Shesser R. The emergency department occupancy rate: a simple measure of emergency department crowding? Ann Emerg Med. 2008 Jan;51(1):15-24, 24.e1-2. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2007.09.003. Epub 2007 Nov 5.
citation: Jones SS, Allen TL, Flottemesch TJ, Welch SJ. An independent evaluation of four quantitative emergency department crowding scales. Acad Emerg Med. 2006 Nov;13(11):1204-11. doi: 10.1197/j.aem.2006.05.021. Epub 2006 Aug 10.
citation: Wang H, Robinson RD, Garrett JS, Bunch K, Huggins CA, Watson K, Daniels J, Banks B, D'Etienne JP, Zenarosa NR. Use of the SONET Score to Evaluate High Volume Emergency Department Overcrowding: A Prospective Derivation and Validation Study. Emerg Med Int. 2015;2015:401757. doi: 10.1155/2015/401757. Epub 2015 Jun 8.