Long emergency department length of stay: A concept analysis

INTRODUCTION: Emergency Department (ED) Length of stay (LOS) has been associated with poor patient outcomes, which has led to the implementation of time targets designed to keep EDLOS below a specific limit. The cut-offs defining long EDLOS varies across settings and seem to be arbitrarily chosen. This study aimed to clarify the meaning of long EDLOS. METHODS: A concept analysis using the Walker and Avant approach was conducted. It included a literature search aiming to identify all uses of the concept, resulting in a set of defining attributes and a way of measuring the concept empirically. RESULTS: Long EDLOS was primarily used as proxy for other phenomena, e.g. boarding or crowding. The definitions had cut-offs ranging between 4 and 48 h. The attributes defining long EDLOS was waiting, a crowded ED environment and an inefficient organization. DISCUSSION: Time targets are probably more suitable when directed towards and tailored for specific sub-groups of the ED population.