Length of stay in the emergency department and its associated factors among pediatrics patients attending at Wolaita Sodo University Teaching and Referral Hospital, Southern, Ethiopia, 2021.

Abstract

Background Pediatrics emergency department length of stay; is the time between emergency department arrival and discharge, admission, or referred. Globally, there is a rising in the need for emergency department visits, which is very high in pediatric patients causing a longer length of stay, which is a global challenge and the bottle neck of hospitals that increase the risk of patients, morbidity, mortality, and reduce satisfaction. Objective This study aimed to assess the length of stay and its associated factors in the pediatric emergency department, Wolaita Sodo University Hospital, 2021. Methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 15 to May 15/ 2021. A Systematic sampling technique was used to select 422 study participants. Semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaires and chart reviews were used to collect the data. The data were entered in Epi Data version 4.6 and analyzed with SPSS version 26. Descriptive statistics were applied to describe the prevalence, pediatrics, emergency department length of stay with a 95% confidence interval. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify the factors associated with length of stay and the significant level was declared at p-value ≤ 0.05 on AOR and 95% confidence interval Results The proportion of prolonged pediatric emergency department length of stay was 79.70% (95% CI; 75.7, 83.6). Night time arrival [AOR = 3.19, 95% CI (1.14, 8.98)], weekend arrival [AOR=4.25 95% CI (1.63,11.12], ordered imaging study [AOR = 2.82 95% CI (1.49,5.35)], not got ordered medication in the hospital [AOR = 2.05 95% CI (1.04,4.03)] orange triage category [AOR = 4.01, 95% CI (1.60,10.05)], and duration of pain 13-24 hours[AOR = 0.29, 95% CI (0.89,0.98)], were significantly associated with length of stay Conclusion The proportion of prolonged pediatrics emergency department length of stay was high. To decrease the length of stay, it is better to support the investment of resources on solving these benchmarks.