Impact of urgent care centers on emergency department visits in Al Madina Al Munawara: A pre-post study.

IF 1.7 4区医学 Q2 MEDICINE, GENERAL & INTERNAL

Saudi Medical Journal Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.15537/smj.2025.46.1.20240537

Ahlam A ALJohani, Jehan M Alhazmi, Osama H Alsaedi, Ahmed F Al-Ahmadi, Noura S Alshammary

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of UCCs on reducing non-urgent Emergency Department (ED) visits and improving patient flow, focusing on metrics such as door-to-doctor time, doctor-to-decision time, and overall patient disposition.

Methods: This observational cohort pre-post study analyzed data from 198,050 ED visits to King Fahad Hospital, Al Madina Al Munawara between June 2021 and May 2023 and compared visit patterns before and after UCC implementation.

Results: Post-UCC implementation, the average door-to-doctor time decreased but was not statistically significant. Significant reductions were observed in doctor-to-decision and door-to-disposition times for CTAS 3 patients. However, overall patient flow improvements were not fully realized, highlighting the need for enhanced public awareness and integration of UCCs with EDs.

Conclusion: The study shows that while urgent care centers in Al Madina Al Munawara have improved efficiency for some patient categories, they don't fully achieve expected reductions in waiting times and patient flow. Seasonal variations, limited patient awareness, and data constraints affect outcomes.

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紧急护理中心对Al Madina Al Munawara急诊科就诊的影响：一项前后研究。

目的：评估UCCs对减少非紧急急诊科（ED）就诊和改善患者流量的影响，重点关注从门到医生的时间、医生到决策的时间和患者总体处置等指标。方法：本观察性队列前后研究分析了2021年6月至2023年5月期间Al Madina Al Munawara法赫德国王医院198,050例急诊就诊数据，并比较了UCC实施前后的就诊模式。结果：ucc实施后，平均上门到医生的时间缩短，但无统计学意义。CTAS 3患者从医生到决定和从门口到处置的时间显著减少。然而，总体的患者流量改善并没有完全实现，这突出了提高公众意识和整合UCCs与急诊科的必要性。结论：研究表明，虽然Al Madina Al Munawara的紧急护理中心提高了某些患者类别的效率，但他们并没有完全实现预期的等待时间和患者流量的减少。季节变化、有限的患者意识和数据限制都会影响结果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Saudi Medical Journal 医学-医学：内科

CiteScore

2.30

自引率

6.20%

发文量

203

审稿时长

12 months

期刊介绍： The Saudi Medical Journal is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal. It is an open access journal, with content released under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, Systematic Reviews, Case Reports, Brief Communication, Brief Report, Clinical Note, Clinical Image, Editorials, Book Reviews, Correspondence, and Student Corner.