Tehran University Medical Journal (Feb 2024)
Evaluation of emergency department crowding of Imam Khomeini hospital in Urmia based on EDWIN index in 2020
Abstract
Background: Overcrowding in the emergency department is considered as a problem of the public health system, and the present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the overcrowding in the emergency department of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia based on the EDWIN index. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was carried out cross-sectionally from March 21, 2019 to March 19, 2020, using a simple random sampling method in patients referred to the emergency department of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia. Which was used to collect information from the demographic information checklist and the EDWIN index was calculated. Then the information was entered into SPSS18 software and analyzed with the help of descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: In this study, the results showed that in terms of the frequency of triage level, 5.4% was level one, 65.6% was level two, 26.3% was level three, 2.7% was level four and there was no disease in level five. In terms of shift, 22.5% visited the hospital in the morning shift, 27.6% in the evening shift and 49.9% in the night shift. The average EDWIN index was 2.7±0.75 on holidays and 5.9±4.6 on non-holiday days. Although emergency room congestion was more on non-holiday days, this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.15). Also, the average of EDWIN in the morning shift was 2.5±2.3, in the evening shift it was 0.71±2.16 and in the night shift it was 9.7±5.8 and even though the average of EDWIN in the night shift was higher than in the evening and night shifts, this difference was not statistically significant (P=0.06). Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated that on most of the investigated days, the emergency room was evaluated as crowded based on the EDWIN criteria. Also, there is no significant difference between the busyness of the emergency room according to the holiday or working day, as well as the morning, evening and night shift.
