The Impact of Night-time Emergency Department Presentation on Upper Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage Outcomes

Goals: The aim was to investigate the impact of night-time emergency department (ED) presentation on outcomes of patients admitted for acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (UGIH). Background: The relationship between time of ED presentation and outcomes of gastrointestinal hemorrhage is unclear. Study: Using the 2016 and 2017 Florida State Inpatient Databases which provide times of ED arrival, we identified and categorized adults hospitalized for UGIH to daytime (07:00 to 18:59 h) and night-time (19:00 to 06:59 h) based on the time of ED presentation. We matched both groups with propensity scores, and assessed their clinical outcomes including all-cause in-hospital mortality, in-hospital endoscopy utilization, length of stay (LOS), total hospitalization costs, and 30-day all-cause readmission rates. Results: Of the identified 38,114 patients with UGIH, 89.4% (n=34,068) had acute nonvariceal hemorrhage (ANVH), while 10.6% (n=4046) had acute variceal hemorrhage (AVH). Compared with daytime patients, ANVH patients admitted at night-time had higher odds of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio: 1.32; 95% confidence interval: 1.06-1.60), lower odds of in-patient endoscopy (odds ratio: 0.83; 95% confidence interval: 0.77-0.90), higher total hospital costs ($9911 vs. $9545, P<0.016), but similar LOS and readmission rates. Night-time AVH patients had a shorter LOS (5.4 vs. 5.8 d, P=0.045) but similar mortality rates, endoscopic utilization, total hospitalization costs, and readmission rates as daytime patients. Conclusions: Patients arriving in the ED at night-time with ANVH had worse outcomes (mortality, hospitalization costs, and endoscopy utilization) compared with daytime patients. However, those with AVH had comparable outcomes irrespective of ED arrival time.