ArticleThe western journal of emergency medicine2025
Factors Associated with Patients Leaving Without Being Seen in a Canadian Emergency Department.
Article in The western journal of emergency medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Peer Support Workers to Improve Emergency Department Care Completion Among Patients Who Use Substances: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2026Article
- Patient-level, Temporal, and Dynamic Operational Indicators of Emergency Department Prolonged Length of Stay: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Archives of academic emergency medicine · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionPatients leaving without being seen is a critical quality metric for emergency department (ED) performance and is associated with negative patient outcomes and operational inefficiencies. In this study we aimed to systematically assess patient- and system-level factors influencing leaving-without-being-seen behavior.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study at The Ottawa Hospital, a tertiary-care ED with 85,000 annual ED visits in Ottawa, Canada. We analyzed all patient encounters for two years from May 2022-April 2024. Variables included demographics characteristics (age, sex), visit specifics (arrival day and time, Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale [CTAS] scores, presenting complaints), and operational metrics (ED occupancy metrics). Multivariate logistic regression analyses evaluated the influence of these factors on rates of leaving without being seen.
resultsOf 170,536 ED visits, 15,473 (9.1%) patients left without being seen, and 2,716 (1.6%) left before triage. Each additional 10 years of age reduced the adjusted odds of leaving without being seen by 20.2% (older patients left less frequently). Male patients had 9.4% higher adjusted odds of leaving without being seen compared to females. For every five patients waiting to be seen, the adjusted odds of leaving increased by 16.9% for a newly arriving patient. For every five patients already seen but awaiting disposition, the adjusted odds of leaving increased by 9.6% for a newly arriving patient. Compared to CTAS 2 patients (high acuity), CTAS 3 patients had 67.1% higher adjusted odds of leaving, CTAS 4 patients had 134% higher adjusted odds, and CTAS 5 patients (lowest acuity) had 176% higher adjusted odds of leaving.
conclusionYounger age, male sex, lower acuity, and ED crowding independently and significantly increase rates of leaving without being seen. Importantly, both crowding and volume of patients waiting impact left-without-being-seen behaviour. Optimizing patient flow through strategic movement within the ED may enhance the perception of progress, encouraging patients to remain for care.
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