Table 5.
Clinical characteristics of study participants (n = 306)
| Category | Variable | TOTAL (n = 306) | MRHT (Pre-pandemic) n = 41 | UHL (Containment) n = 57 | SVUH (Level 2) n = 77 | SJUH (Level 5) n = 67 | UHK (Level 3) n = 64 | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Presenting Complainta | Musculoskeletal | 24% | 24% | 19% | 22% | 24% | 28% | 0.01 |
| Cardiovascular | 16% | 12% | 21% | 20% | 13% | 11% | ||
| Gastroenterological | 13% | 2% | 19% | 17% | 9% | 14% | ||
| Trauma | 13% | 22% | 5% | 9% | 19% | 11% | ||
| Duration of Complaint | < 1 day | 38% | 42% | 28% | 39% | 37% | 42% | 0.674 |
| 1–2 days | 9% | 12% | 12% | 8% | 8% | 8% | ||
| 3–7 days | 15% | 10% | 21% | 17% | 9% | 17% | ||
| > 7 days | 38% | 37% | 39% | 36% | 46% | 33% | ||
| Worry Scale 1–10 | Median | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 0.01 |
| IQR | 5–8 | 4–8 | 5–8 | 5–8 | 7–10 | 5–8 | ||
| Pain Scale 1–10 | Median | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 0.386 |
| IQR | 3–8 | 4–9 | 3–8 | 2–8 | 4–8 | 3–7 | ||
| Triage Category | Very Urgent | 20% | 10% | 28% | 30% | 25% | 0% | 0.001 |
| Urgent | 55% | 49% | 61% | 44% | 49% | 74% | ||
| Standard | 23% | 37% | 9% | 25% | 25% | 25% | ||
| Non-Urgent | 2% | 5% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 2% | ||
| Length of Stay (LOS) | Median (h) | 5.4 | 3.5 | 7.3 | 4.5 | 5.6 | 5.2 | 0.01 |
| IQR | 2.6–8.6 | 2.3–7.1 | 4.2–11.2 | 2.5–6.9 | 3.2–8.2 | 1.9–10.1 | ||
| Range | 0.0–67.1 | 0.5–12.5 | 0.3–67.1 | 0.0–14.4 | 1.1–19.2 | 0.2–19.4 | ||
| < 1 h | 6% | 2% | 4% | 12% | 0% | 10% | ||
| 1-2 h | 9% | 15% | 4% | 7% | 5% | 14% | ||
| 2-4 h | 23% | 34% | 14% | 23% | 26% | 22% | ||
| 4-8 h | 33% | 27% | 33% | 43% | 42% | 19% | ||
| 8-16 h | 25% | 20% | 37% | 16% | 23% | 29% | ||
| 16-24 h | 4% | 2% | 7% | 0% | 4% | 6% | ||
| > 24 h | < 1% | 0% | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0% | ||
| Disposition | Admitted | 32% | 26% | 33% | 29% | 36% | 37% | 0.591 |
| Discharged | 65% | 71% | 60% | 70% | 65% | 61% | ||
| Did Not Wait | 2% | 3% | 5% | 1% | 0% | 2% | ||
| Transferred | < 1% | 0% | 2% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
aPresenting Complaint was characterised as per the categories outlined in the RCEM Syllabus in the UK, which is aligned with the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) Training Standards in Ireland
bInterquartile Range (IQR) 25th- 75th percentile. P-value from Chi2-tests for categorical variables and from Kruskal–Wallis test for continuous variables