Background: Most countries lack a well-coordinated approach to out-of-hours endoscopy. Economic constraints and lack of resources have been identified as important barriers.
Objective: To assess the performance evaluation of an out-of-hours emergency endoscopy model of care.
Design: During a 3 year period (January 2010 to December 2012), data from consecutive outpatients (n = 332) with non-variceal acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding admitted or transferred to a single referral hospital were prospectively collected.
Results: 34% (n = 113) were direct admissions whereas 66% (n = 219) were transferred from other hospitals. Median time to upper endoscopy esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) was 6 h and 7.7 h for direct admissions and transferred, respectively. EGD was performed within 24 h in 90% of the patients. Rebleeding, in-hospital mortality, 30 day mortality and need for surgery were respectively 9.8%, 5.8%, 7.4%, and 6.6% and were not significantly different between the two groups. Age, malignancy, and moderate to high clinical Rockall risk score were independent predictors of in-hospital mortality in both groups. Age remained as an important predictor of main outcomes in transferred patients, while comorbidities differed according to admission status and predictable outcomes.
Conclusion: This gastroenterology emergency model improved access and equity to out-of-hours endoscopy in an effective, safe, and timely way, recognized by the rates and the homogeneity observed in the outcomes, between transferred patients and direct admissions.
Keywords: clinical-effectiveness; emergency care; non-variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding; out-of-hours endoscopy; services provision.