Impact of emergency room occupancy on the timing of antibiotic administration in patients with septic shock who visited the emergency room

¹Department of Emergency Medicine, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Korea
²Department of Emergency Medicine, Pusan National University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea
³Department of Emergency Medicine, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea

Correspondence

Minjee Lee ,Tel: 055-360-2143, Fax: 055-360-2173, Email: liobamj@gmail.com,

Received: August 10, 2023; Revised: September 13, 2023 Accepted: September 18, 2023. Published online: June 30, 2024.

ABSTRACT

Objective:
The emergency department (ED) serves as the initial point of contact for many sepsis patients, but crowding can affect the timely delivery of essential interventions, such as antibiotics. This paper explores the relationship between antibiotics administration and ED crowding in the context of sepsis management.
Method:
This single-center study at a tertiary care hospital included adult patients aged 18 and above who visited the emergency department from January 2018 to December 2022. Patients showing signs of septic shock upon arrival were selected as the study population. This study examined factors such as emergency department occupancy, antibiotic administration time, and their correlation with timely antibiotic treatment.
Results:
This study of 839 adult patients with septic shock found a weak correlation (P=0.107) between the time to antibiotic administration and department occupancy. Delayed antibiotic administration was observed when the occupancy exceeded 100%. On the other hand, there was no significant correlation between antibiotic administration within one hour and department occupancy.
Conclusion:
Various factors, such as ED bed occupancy, medical staffing, resource allocation, and patient acuity, must be considered when comprehensively evaluating the impact of ED overcrowding on treating septic shock and other conditions.

Key words: Septic shock; Bed occupancy; Crowding