Feeling the HEAT: Using Hourly Emergency Activity Tracking to demonstrate a novel method of describing activity and patient flow

作者：Bein Kendall J; Berendsen Russell Saartje; Muscatello David; Chalkley Dane; Ivers Rebecca; Dinh Michael M^*

来源：Emergency Medicine Australasia, 2017, 29(2): 173-177.

DOI：10.1111/1742-6723.12712

• activity
• emergency department
• performance

Objective: The objective of the present study is to demonstrate a novel method of mapping ED activity to analyse patterns presentations, occupancy and performance trends.
Methods: This was a retrospective, descriptive analysis of de-identified and linked ED presentations across NSW, Australia, over five calendar years, 2010-2014. It was undertaken as part of the Demand for Emergency Services Trend in Years 2010-2014 (DESTINY) study. The DESTINY project analysed 10.8 million presentations during 2010-2014. Hourly Emergency Activity Tracking (HEAT) maps were generated to visually represent and analyse the number of emergency arrivals to ED occupancy and proportion of patients leaving the ED within 4 h per hour of day across consecutive months of the year.
Results: HEAT maps provided a means of visually representing ED activity to demonstrate hour-to-hour trends in presentations, occupancy and performance between 2010 and 2014. This analysis has shown that the most marked increase in presentations per hour has occurred during the 10.00-14.00 hour period, associated with an improvement in ED performance during the same period.
Conclusion: HEAT maps may be used to facilitate further analyses of ED demand, patterns of patient presentations and patient flow and future health system redesign.

• 出版日期2017-4