فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: Tracking turnaround times (TATs) can improve the quality of care and decrease the economic burden of patient care. Objectives: The aim of this study was to measure current TATs in a hospital emergency department (ED) and to analyze the contribution of prelaboratory and laboratory phases to the total TAT. Results: During the study period, time data were provided for 1400 ED tests. The mean total TAT for all tests ranged from 1.3 to 3.1 hour. On weekdays, the longest TAT (2.5 ± 0.9 hours) was on Sundays, and the shortest TAT (1.9 ± 0.7 hours) was on Fridays (P < 0.001). The mean total TAT for all tests was significantly longer in the morning shift than in the night shift (2.8 ± 1.2 hours vs. 2.0 ± 0.7 hours, P < 0.001). The laboratory phase accounted for a significantly higher proportion of the TAT (57.4%) than the prelaboratory phase. Conclusions: This study suggests that the mean TAT in this teaching hospital is longer than the benchmark. Further research is needed to determine the causes of delays and develop interventions to solve this problem.