Event Title
In female patients who present to the emergency room does pregnancy testing during triage versus pregnancy testing after examination by the medical provider reduce wait time and increase patient satisfaction?
Faculty Mentor
Waitline Williams
Major/Area of Research
FNP
Description
Abstract Aim: To conduct a literature review and synthesize the evidence for decreasing Emergency Room (ER) wait times, and propose that pregnancy testing during triage will assist in decreasing wait times. Background: Extended emergency wait times are a major concern for hospitals in many parts of the world. Consequences include delay in treatment, which could affect patient mortality and morbidity, ambulance diversions and patient dissatisfaction and frustration causing them to leave without receiving treatment. Women of reproductive age often receive teratogenic medications in the ER without pregnancy testing leading to birth defects. Pregnancy testing in the waiting room could decrease wait time due to delay in medication administration. Methods: Sources included Published English- language articles in the Academic Search Complete, CINAHL and Cochrane databases. Search terms were emergency room or emergency department, patient satisfaction, human chorionic gonadotropin, pregnancy testing and medication between 2006 -2015. Results: Fourteen articles were included with five interventions identified. Licensed medical providers in the waiting room provided initial assessments and initiate diagnostic studies reducing the time from arrival to initial contact with provider by 50 minutes in some cases, point of care lab testing, performance improvement plans to increase patient flow, improved staff communication and publicly available ER wait times. Eightyeight percent of women who received teratogenic medications did not receive pregnancy testing. Conclusion: Point of care testing has been identified as an intervention to decrease wait time. However, it is not clear if pregnancy testing was included, therefore further research is needed.
In female patients who present to the emergency room does pregnancy testing during triage versus pregnancy testing after examination by the medical provider reduce wait time and increase patient satisfaction?
Abstract Aim: To conduct a literature review and synthesize the evidence for decreasing Emergency Room (ER) wait times, and propose that pregnancy testing during triage will assist in decreasing wait times. Background: Extended emergency wait times are a major concern for hospitals in many parts of the world. Consequences include delay in treatment, which could affect patient mortality and morbidity, ambulance diversions and patient dissatisfaction and frustration causing them to leave without receiving treatment. Women of reproductive age often receive teratogenic medications in the ER without pregnancy testing leading to birth defects. Pregnancy testing in the waiting room could decrease wait time due to delay in medication administration. Methods: Sources included Published English- language articles in the Academic Search Complete, CINAHL and Cochrane databases. Search terms were emergency room or emergency department, patient satisfaction, human chorionic gonadotropin, pregnancy testing and medication between 2006 -2015. Results: Fourteen articles were included with five interventions identified. Licensed medical providers in the waiting room provided initial assessments and initiate diagnostic studies reducing the time from arrival to initial contact with provider by 50 minutes in some cases, point of care lab testing, performance improvement plans to increase patient flow, improved staff communication and publicly available ER wait times. Eightyeight percent of women who received teratogenic medications did not receive pregnancy testing. Conclusion: Point of care testing has been identified as an intervention to decrease wait time. However, it is not clear if pregnancy testing was included, therefore further research is needed.