Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Prolonged emergency department (ED) stays make a disproportionate contribution to ED overcrowding, but the factors associated with longer stays have not been systematically reviewed. ⋯ Despite a sizeable body of literature, the available information is insufficiently precise to inform clinical or service-planning decisions; there is a need for a predictive model, including specific patient complaints. Deeper understanding of the determinants of ED LOS could help to identify patients and/or populations who require special intervention or resources to prevent a protracted stay.
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To identify patient and attendance characteristics that are associated with onwards referral to co-located emergency departments (EDs) or other hospital specialty departments from general practitioner (GP) led urgent care centres (UCCs) in northwest London, England. ⋯ The majority of patients, across each category of all explanatory variables, were managed solely within the UCCs, although a large absolute number of patients were referred onwards each year. Several characteristics of patients and their attendances were associated with the outcome variable.