Who is less likely to die in association with improved National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) compliance for emergency admissions in a tertiary referral hospital?

Conclusions Improved NEAT compliance as a result of clinical redesign is associated with improved in-patient mortality among particular subgroups of emergency admissions, namely older patients with complex medical conditions, those presenting after hours and on weekends and those presenting with time-sensitive acute cardiorespiratory conditions.What is known about the topic? Clinical redesign aimed at improving compliance with NEAT and reducing time spent within the ED of acutely admitted patients has been associated with reduced mortality. To date, no study has attempted to identify subgroups of patients who potentially derive the greatest benefit from improved NEAT compliance in terms of reduced risk of in-patient death. It also remains unclear as to what extent non-patient factors (e.g. admission practices and differences in coding of palliative care patients) affect or confound this reduced risk.What does this paper add? The present study is the first to reveal that enhanced NEAT compliance is associated with lower mortality among particular subgroups of emergency patients admitted to in-patient wards. These include older patients with complex medical conditions, those presenting after hours or on weekends or those with time-sensitive acute cardiorespiratory conditions. These results took account of any possible confounding resulting from differences over time in emergency admission rates, deaths in the ED, numbers of short-stay ward admissions and coding of palliative ca...
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research