Table 1 Variables taken into account
From: Waiting times in emergency departments: a resource allocation or an efficiency issue?
Groups | Variables |
ED admissions | ED admission rate per 1000 inhabitants |
ED waiting times | ED waiting times |
Group 1: Continuity of care | Number of GPs per 1000 inhabitants in the district |
Group 2: Chronic care | Percentage of inhabitants (≥ 16 years) enrolled in Tuscan chronic care programmes |
Primary care effectiveness of chronic disease management (hospitalization rate for heart failure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) | |
Group 3: ED personnel endowment | Number of FTE ED physicians per 10,000 admissions |
Group 4: Organizational factors | % of non-urgent treated within four hours |
% admissions to the observation unit | |
% of hospitalized patients from the observation unit | |
Observation unit length of stay < 6 h | |
Observation unit length of stay > 48 h | |
% admissions to the observation unit | |
% of hospitalized ED patients | |
% hospitalized ED patients within eight hours | |
Bed occupancy rate | |
% appropriateness of surgical setting | |
% of patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit within 24 h | |
% of repeat admissions to the ED within 72 h | |
% Patients left without being seen |