ABSTRACT

Introduction: The high demand for healthcare services often causes hospitals, particularly emergency departments (EDs), to face problems such as poor service quality and long waiting times, resulting in patient congestion and prolonged Emergency Department Length of Stay (EDLOS). This study aims to analyze the factors that influence EDLOS.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional approach was used to analyze the input factors (infrastructure, hospital regulations, human resources, and patients) that influence Emergency Department Length of Stay (EDLOS). A purposive sampling technique (150) was used with a binary logistic regression test.
Results: Infrastructure had a significant influence on EDLOS (p-value = 0.001). Hospital regulations and policies had a significant influence on EDLOS (p-value = 0.001). Human resources also significantly influenced EDLOS (p-value = 0.001). Meanwhile, patient age and condition did not substantially influence EDLOS (p-value = 0.182). An EDLOS of <6 hours (64.7%) indicates that most patients received relatively prompt care. However, 35.3% of patients still experienced an EDLOS of ≥6 hours, suggesting areas for improvement in ED service efficiency.
Conclusion: Factors significantly influencing EDLOS include medical facility infrastructure, such as the speed of bed availability upon admission, the layout of treatment areas, particularly the arrangement of ED medical equipment, and administrative facilities related to patient comfort. Hospital policies and regulations have a significant influence on EDLOS. Some respondents reported that transfers from the ED to other units were hindered by the need to wait for an inpatient room to become available. Human resources significantly influence EDLOS, including improving communication to ensure that patients’ families understand medical emergencies. Age was not shown to influence patient length of stay in the ED. Although the majority of patients were in the yellow triage category, there was no significant effect on ED length of stay based on the triage category applied.

KEYWORDS

Length of Stay in Emergency Room, EDLOS, Emergency Room

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