Causes of death among non-urgent patients in the emergency department who die within 30 days.

Autor:	Andréa MK; Department of Emergency Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital., Pries-Heje M; Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Rigshospitalet., Hasselbalch RB; Department of Emergency Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital., Schultz M; Department of Emergency Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital., Ravn L; Department of Emergency Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital., Lind M; Department of Emergency Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital., Christensen AH; Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Denmark., Dalsgaard M; Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Denmark., Iversen K; Department of Emergency Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital - Herlev and Gentofte Hospital.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Danish medical journal [Dan Med J] 2023 Sep 25; Vol. 70 (10). Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Sep 25.
Abstrakt:	Introduction: Patients triaged as non-urgent in the emergency department constitute a diverse group with a low mortality rate assumed to be able to wait three hours for a physician. Little is known about the causes of death of non-urgent patients who die shortly after admission. We examined whether deaths among non-urgent patients were preventable. Method: Using data from the Copenhagen Triage Algorithm Study, we conducted a review of electronic medical records of all patients triaged as non-urgent who died within 30 days of presentation and constructed short summaries. These summaries were reviewed by two senior physicians who determined whether each death was expected or unexpected. The unexpected deaths were further assessed as unrelated or related to admission and if related as preventable or unpreventable. Any disagreements were settled by a third senior physician. Results: Among the patients triaged as non-urgent, 335 of 14,655 (2%) died within 30 days. When comparing biomarkers and age, the non-urgent patients resembled the patients in other triage categories who died within 30 days. Most deaths were expected or not preventable (96%). The preventable deaths (n = 13, 4%) were among older patients with comorbidities. Causes of death were sudden cardiac arrest (n = 3), infection (n = 4), kidney failure (n = 1), electrolyte derangement (n = 1) and unknown (n = 4). Conclusion: Preventable deaths among non-urgent patients were rare and no overrepresentation was observed of specialties or diseases. Funding: Trygfonden. Clinicaltrials: gov:NCT02698319. (Published under Open Access CC-BY-NC-BD 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:	Zobrazit plný text záznamu