Table 2.
Action and outcome of the assessment of patients for emergency admission
| Action | physician assessment | % | nurse assessment | % | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| redirected to physician/specialist (% of all) | - | 83* | (16) | ||
| immediate admissions | 315 | (74) | 350 | (68) | 0.15 |
| plan for admission within next 24 hours | 6 | (1) | 3 | (1) | 0.31 |
| redirected to another specialist | 8 | (2) | 21 | (4) | 0.06 |
| redirected to another hospital | 7 | (1) | 41 | (8) | < 0.0001 |
| redirected to the urgent out patient clinic | 32 | (7) | 0 | (0) | n.c. |
| redirected to the non-urgent out patient clinic | 36 | (8) | 12 | (2) | < 0.0001 |
| counselling/rejection of admission | 24 | (7) | 1 | (0) | n.c. |
| Outcome | |||||
| unnecessary admissions | 18/306 | (6) | 25/367 | (7) | 0.62 |
| correct assessment according to catchment area | 190/272 | (70) | 276/355 | (78) | 0.03 |
| rejected patients admitted within 48 hours** | 10/41 | (24) | 0 | (0) | n.c. |
| median time (minutes) spend on assessment (IQR)*** | 2 | (2-3) | 1 | (1-2) | < 0.0001 |
* 51% of these were immediately admitted ** patients rejected or redirected to non-urgent out patient clinic. *** ortopaedic and vascular patients excluded.