ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The interval from patient arrival to triage is arguably the most dangerous time a patient spends in the emergency department (ED), as they are an unknown entity until assessed by a health care professional. OBJECTIVE: We sought to quantify door-to-triage time (DTT), an important factor in patient safety that has not yet been quantified in Canada. METHODS: Data were collected from all ambulatory patients presenting to a tertiary-care ED during a consecutive 7-day period. Demographic information, arrival time (door time), triage time, and Canadian Triage and Acuity Score (CTAS) were collected. DTT was compared across variables using Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: Seven hundred and seventy-five patients were included in the study, representing 82.9% of ambulatory patients. DTT was variable (1-86 min) with a median of 12 min (interquartile range [IQR] 6-21 min). Patients in the 5th percentile with the longest DTT waited a median of 54 min (IQR 48-63 min). DTT varied across days of the week (p < 0.01); the longest wait was on Monday (median 22 [IQR 11-43] min) and the shortest on Sunday (median 8 [IQR 5-12] min). There was no relationship between DTT and CTAS (p = 0.12). CONCLUSIONS: DTT is an important variable affecting patient safety. Given site-specific factors, replication across additional centers is necessary. Additional research evaluating factors affecting DTT, different triage paradigms, and quality improvement interventions should be undertaken.
