Analysis and impact of delays in ambulance to emergency department handovers

Objectives Delays in the clinical handover of patient care from emergency medical services (EMS) to the ED because of ED crowding are a substantial problem for many EMS systems. This study was conducted to quantify handover delays experienced by the Ambulance Service of New South Wales (ASNSW), and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emergency medicine Australasia 2012-10, Vol.24 (5), p.525-533
Main Authors: Cone, David C, Middleton, Paul M, Marashi Pour, Sadaf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
allied health personnel
Allied health services
Ambulances - statistics & numerical data
Attitude of Health Personnel
Confidence Intervals
Continuity of Patient Care - statistics & numerical data
Delayed Diagnosis - prevention & control
Delayed Diagnosis - statistics & numerical data
emergency medical services
emergency service
Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data
Emergency services
Female
hospital
Hospitals
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
New South Wales
Odds Ratio
Patient Transfer - statistics & numerical data
time factor
Time Factors
Young Adult
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Summary:Objectives Delays in the clinical handover of patient care from emergency medical services (EMS) to the ED because of ED crowding are a substantial problem for many EMS systems. This study was conducted to quantify handover delays experienced by the Ambulance Service of New South Wales (ASNSW), and to investigate patient and system factors associated with handover delay. Methods A retrospective study of EMS dispatch and ambulance patient care records was conducted for all patients transported by ASNSW in January/April/July/October 2009. Patient characteristics and time intervals were summarised using descriptive statistics, with handover delay categorised as
ISSN:1742-6731
1742-6723
DOI:10.1111/j.1742-6723.2012.01589.x