Influences on emergency department length of stay for older people

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to examine the influences on emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) for older people and develop a predictive model for an ED LOS more than 4 h. Methods This retrospective cohort study used organizational data linkage at the patient level from a major Australian health service. The study population was aged 65 years or older, attending an ED during the 2013/2014 financial year. We developed and internally validated a clinical prediction rule. Discriminatory performance of the model was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. An integer-based risk score was developed using multivariate logistic regression. The risk score..