Annals of emergency medicine

The most recent articles from: Ann Emerg Med November 2007

Ann Emerg Med · Nov 2007

Multicenter Study

Prolonged emergency department stays of non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction patients are associated with worse adherence to the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for management and increased adverse events.

We evaluate the association of emergency department (ED) length of stay with use of guideline-recommended therapies for acute treatments and clinical outcomes. Prolonged ED stays often reflect ED crowding or limited hospital capacity. We hypothesized that patients with non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction who have ED stays of greater than 8 hours may have lower quality of care and worse outcomes. ⋯ For patients with non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction, long ED stays were associated with decreased use of guideline-recommended therapies and a higher risk of recurrent myocardial infarction. However, there was no observed difference in mortality. Factors associated with prolonged ED length of stay should be evaluated to optimize treatments and outcomes of patients with non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction.

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