Queueing Variables and Leave-Without-Treatment Rates in the Emergency Room

Hospitals stand to lose millions of dollars in revenue due to patients who leave without treatment (LWT). Grounded in queueing theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between daily arrivals, daily staffing, triage time, emergency severity index (ESI), rooming time, door-to-provider time (DTPT), and LWT rates. The target population comprised patients who visited a Connecticut emergency room between October 1, 2017, and May 31, 2018. Archival records (N = 154) were analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the multiple linear regression were statistically significant, with F(9,144) = 2902.49, p \u3c .001, and R2 = 0.99, indicating 99% of the variation in LWT was accounted for by the predictor variables. ESI levels were the only variables making a significant contribution to the regression model. The implications for positive social change include the potential for patients to experience increased satisfaction due to the high quality of care and overall improvement in public health outcomes. Hospital leaders might use the information from this study to mitigate LWT rates and modify or manage staffing levels, time that patients must wait for triage, room placement, and DTPT to decrease the rate of LWT in the emergency room