Forty-eight hours return visits at Hamad General Hospital Emergency Department on January 2015

Background: Hamad General Hospital (HGH) Emergency Department (ED) provided 465,942 patient visits in 2014. (ED) use has increased annually resulting in overcrowding, longer wait periods for service and increased stress on health care workers. Much attention has been paid to factors contributing to this increased usage such as the return visit of an (ED) patient within 48 hours of the initial visit. 48 hours is the benchmark time period used in measuring (ED) return visits utilized by many countries and it became a mandatory quality indicator of performance by the Supreme Council of Health in Qatar on April 2015. This study was conducted to identify factors associated with scheduled and unscheduled 48 hours return visits to serve as a basis for a Quality Improvement Project (QIP) for development of interventions to decrease unscheduled returns. Methods: An exploratory quantitative study using a descriptive correlational design was performed. The sample consisted of all patients had a return visits to (ED)...