- Patient characteristics in emergency room (ER) according to CTAS (N=198,050).
| Variable | Total | Impact of urgent care centers | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before the implementation of urgent care centers | After the implementation of urgent care centers | |||
| Average door-to-doctor time in minutes (mean ± SD) | ||||
| CTAS 1 | 16.2 (3.9) | 15.1 (2.8) | 17.3 (4.6) | 0.163 |
| CTAS 2 | 15.0 (4.9) | 12.7 (2.6) | 17.1 (5.6) | 0.024* |
| CTAS 3 | 15.0 (3.5) | 16.0 (4.1) | 13.8 (2.5) | 0.133 |
| CTAS 4 | 56.2 (173.3) | 89.3 (245.6) | 23.0 (7.0) | 0.370 |
| CTAS 5 | 41.4 (49.6) | 32.3 (35.8) | 50.6 (60.7) | 0.378 |
| Average doctor-to-decision time in minutes (mean ± SD) | ||||
| CTAS 1 | 1137.2 (361.7) | 1416.6 (432.6) | 1258.0 (269.6) | 0.293 |
| CTAS 2 | 1165.6 (360.6) | 1264.0 (435.9) | 1067.2 (246.5) | 0.187 |
| CTAS 3 | 586.0 (209.0) | 734.7 (175.4) | 437.3 (111.2) | <0.001* |
| CTAS 4 | 1563.8 (1544.2) | 1250.0 (211.0) | 1877.7 (2174.1) | 0.340 |
| CTAS 5 | 2071.0 (1872.2) | 1711.8 (474.4) | 2430.0 (2612.0) | 0.368 |
| Average door-to-disposition time in minutes (mean ± SD) | ||||
| CTAS 1 | 1657.7 (510.6) | 1791.9 (570.0) | 1523.5 (425.5) | 0.205 |
| CTAS 2 | 1390.0 (472.1) | 1570.3 (578.8) | 1209.0 (245.0) | 0.066 |
| CTAS 3 | 671.8 (253.6) | 840.2 (234.0) | 503.6 (134.0) | <0.001* |
| CTAS 4 | 1678.2 (1542.6) | 1423.1 (351.2) | 1933.3 (2170.4) | 0.438 |
| CTAS 5 | 2170.3 (1863.8) | 1807.8 (473.5) | 2532.8 (2598.6) | 0.361 |
| Patients waiting more than 4 hours in ER, n (%) | ||||
| CTAS 1 | 878 (100) | 368 (41.9) | 510 (58.1) | 0.022* |
| CTAS 2 | 985 (100) | 453 (46.0) | 532 (54.0) | 0.383 |
| CTAS 3 | 86208 (100) | 37195 (43.1) | 49013 (56.9) | 0.002* |
| CTAS 4 | 22745 (100) | 6672 (29.3) | 16073 (70.7) | 0.240 |
| CTAS 5 | 2776 (100) | 924 (33.3) | 1852 (66.7) | 0.262 |
↵* P-value <0.05 CTAS: Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, SD: standard deviation