The prediction levels of emergency clinicians about the outcome of the ambulance patients and outpatients.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The increased number of emergency clinic patients causes the length of stay in the emergency department, low patient satisfaction and dismiss of real emergency patients. In this study, we aimed to determine the prediction levels of emergency clinicians according to working year on the outcome of the ambulance patients and outpatients presented to the emergency department (ED). MATERIALS & METHODS: This prospective study included patients over 18 years old. The triage of outpatients was made by a senior nurse and patients were divided into three triage categories such as green, yellow and red. Then these patients were evaluated by the emergency physician at the examination areas. Ambulance patients were directly evaluated by the emergency physician. These ambulance patients were noted as yellow or red according to triage categories. The main complaints, triage category, presentation method, vital signs, predicted outcome noted by the clinicians. RESULTS: The correct prediction levels of hospitalisation (clinic/intensive care unit) were higher in clinicians whose working year is between 6 and 10 years (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between 6-10 year and >10 year group according to prediction level (p > 0.05). Prediction of dischargement was higher in 0-5 year group than 6-10 year (p < 0.05) and >10 year (p < 0.05) group. CONCLUSION: Experienced clinicians can make much more accurate prediction on length of stay and the prognosis of the emergency patients so crowded follow-up areas of the emergency room can be planned much more effectively.