Do outlier inpatients experience more emergency calls in hospital? An observational cohort study

Results: There were 58 158 admissions during the study period. The median age of admitted patients was 61 years, 55% were male, and the inhospital mortality was 1.40%. In 11 034 admissions (18.97%), patients spent time as outliers. Inhospital mortality was 2.57% in the outlier group versus 1.12% in the nonoutlier group (P < 0.001). After adjusting for age, same-day admission, 10-year predicted mortality, interhospital transfer and high-risk clinical units, outlier status was associated with a 53% increase in emergency calls (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This study found a strong association between time spent away from a patient’s home ward and the number of emergency calls. We postulate that outlier patients are at risk as they may have therapeutic and monitoring needs that are only available on their home ward. With increasing pressure to move patients out of the emergency department, the number of outlier patients may increase.