Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Health Administration

College

College of Health Professions

First Advisor

Kit N. Simpson

Second Advisor

Annie N. Simpson

Third Advisor

Stephan Russ

Abstract

Patients presenting with the primary complaint of syncope or near syncope (PSNS) in the emergency department (ED) represents 11.9 million annual visits nationally with an estimated annual cost of over $2.4 billion. With an increase in ED patient visits and limited inpatient bed availability, patients are "boarding" in the ED for extended periods of time. Our aim was to assess whether first available bed assignment, regardless of the admitting service area, would negatively affect major quality patient safety indicators for PSNS. We completed a retrospective cohort study of 659 patients who visited a US southeast academic medical center over a 28 month period. The results revealed no significant differences between patient placement on or off the admitting service area (OR= 1.191; 95% CI= 0.790-1.796). These findings suggest that, even when boarded for an extended time in the ED, PSNS can be placed in the first available bed with appropriate medical management processes in place

Rights

All rights reserved. Copyright is held by the author.

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