Changes in emergency admission times after the introduction of direct admission from emergency services

Objective: To measure the differences of waiting time for the emergency admission depending on which professional is in charge ie. the emergency doctor or the specialist of a specific area. Patients and methods: Once the Hospital Emergency Service was permitted to admit patients directly to the specialities, two periods of study where taken: Period A (before the direct admission) and Period B (after the implementation of it). The following was analysed: the number of patients taken, the complexity of their problem, the number of admissions and length of their stay. Results: During Period A 41,917 patients were seen (228.07 patients/day) and during Period B 41,948 (230.48 patients/day). The average of the stay for those patients that were admitted directly from Emergencies had decreased by 1 h and 42 min (p=0.001). The admissions in the Internal Medicine Service kept the same waiting time in both periods. Conclusions: The transfer of the responsibility of the admissions to emergency doctors has decreased the average waiting time of the patients in this area. The total number of admissions has not increased and has reduced the amount of work the different specialist. (C) 2009 Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.