Time Within the Acute Care Chain: How Long Have Medical Emergency Department Patients Spent

This study is part of a research domain focusing on the acute care chain, which includes the patient journey from symptoms to treatment on the Emergency Medical Department (ED). Within hospitals there is much attention for triage and the amount of time patients spent within the chain, especially for the ED. However, there is less information available on what occurs before patients visit the ED. Gaining more insight in the patient journey in the acute care chain as a whole, might provide important information to further optimize care at the ED. In the current study, 750 patients will be included at multiple ED's in the Netherlands. The primary goal is to gain insight in the patient journey of adult ED patients.