Handling Times of Patients at a Level-1 Academic Trauma Center

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Innovated Medical Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

3 Department of Medical Informatics, Amsterdam UMC (location AMC), Amsterdam, and the Netherlands and Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Center for Education Research in, Medical Sciences (CERMS), Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction:
The patient handling time can affect a patient’s access to critical care; also, there is a relationship between patient handling time in the emergency ward and recovery rates. Nurses and staff of emergency wards are essential factors affecting patient flows in emergency wards.
 Materials and Methods:
This cross-sectional study focused on the flow of patients referring to the level-1 Academic Traumatic Emergency Ward during 2018-2019. Nurses were divided into two categories of group and small-group training, each receiving two training rounds one month apart. The Revised Form of Timing and Workflow Emergency checklist was used for evaluation.
 Results:
Evaluating 600 patients showed that the average time from patient entry to level 3 triage up to file creation was 24.8 minutes before interventions, and the same was 19.6 minutes for small groups and 17.6 for group training category (p<0.05), pointing to the fact that the group training category showed a significant reduction in average time from patient entry to triage to file creation.
 Conclusion:
The present study found that the training of nurses is practical for the flow times of patients hospitalized in emergency wards.

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