Table 1.

Patient, Caregiver, and ED Characteristics

Patient Characteristics	Admitted (n = 14)*	Discharged (n = 33)	Total (n = 47)
Age, y, mean (SD)	4.5 (4.3)	5.9 (4.7)	5.4 (4.6)
Male sex, %	79	61	66
Medical complexity, %†
No chronic conditions	43‡	82	70
Noncomplex chronic	29‡	15	19
Complex chronic	29‡	3	11
Triage acuity level, %§
High
Level 2	14	3	6
Level 3	86	33	49
Low
Level 4	0	61	43
Level 5	0	3	2
ED characteristics
Crowding score‖, mean (SD)	56 (15)	59 (23)	58 (21)
Length of stay, min, mean (SD)	347 (120)	172 (103)	224 (134)
Caregiver characteristics¶	n = 13	n = 29	n = 42
Years in United States, mean (SD)	10.9 (6.4)	11.1 (4.2)	11.1 (4.9)
English proficiency, %
Not at all	38	28	31
Not well	46	55	53
Well	8	17	14
Did not respond	8	0	2
Highest education, %
≥8th grade	31	55	48
Some high school	23	17	19
High school graduate or GED	38	17	24
Some college or more	8	11	9
Did not respond	0	0	0
Annual family income, %
<$15,000	15	21	19
$15,000–30,000	54	62	60
$30,000–50,000	8	7	7
>$50,000	8	3	5
Did not respond	15	7	9

SD indicates standard deviation; ED, emergency department; and GED, general equivalency diploma.

^*Includes 1 patient admitted to magnetic resonance imaging and subsequently discharged from there; included in the admitted category because final discharge education occurred outside of the ED and was not captured in video recording.

^†Patient Medical Complexity Algorithm.¹⁸

^‡Sum >100% owing to rounding errors.

^§Emergency Severity Index, range 1–5; level 1 patients (highest acuity) were not eligible for inclusion in the randomized controlled trial.

^‖National Emergency Department Overcrowding Score (range 0 to 200); level 2 (range 20–60) indicates a busy ED, level 3 (60–100) indicates an extremely busy ED.

^¶Obtained from follow-up telephone survey.