Children’s Mental Health Visits to the Emergency Department: Factors Affecting Wait Times and Length of Stay

Table 3

Exploratory models of ED LOS predictors for pediatric mental health visits (𝑛=501).

	𝑛	Bivariable model			Multivariable model
		Hazard ratio	95% CI	𝑃 value	Hazard ratio	95% CI	𝑃 value
Age	501	0.93	0.90–0.97	<0.001	0.96	0.92–1.01	0.079
Sex
Female	278	Reference			Reference
Male	221	0.93	0.77–1.11	0.412	0.88	0.72–1.07	0.210
Unknown	2	1.35	0.50–3.60	0.554	1.77	1.23–2.55	0.002
Day of the week
Tuesday to Thursday	245	Reference			Reference
Friday to Monday	256	1.02	0.86–1.22	0.825	1.05	0.87–1.27	0.624
ED type
General	366	Reference			Reference
Pediatric	135	1.06	0.88–1.28	0.551	1.71	1.18–2.46	0.004
Triage level
CTAS 1	2	2.87	1.14–7.21	0.025	4.96	1.57–15.68	0.006
CTAS 2	74	0.86	0.69–1.07	0.181	1.13	0.82–1.56	0.441
CTAS 3 or unknown	238	Reference			Reference
CTAS 4	173	1.40	1.13–1.73	0.002	1.24	0.99–1.56	0.061
CTAS 5	14	1.81	1.04–3.16	0.037	2.00	1.15–3.48	0.015
Mental health consultation
No consultation	332	Reference			Reference
Consultation	169	0.48	0.40–0.59	<0.001	0.93	0.60–1.42	0.722
Disposition
Discharged	426	Reference			Reference
Admitted	75	0.67	0.53–0.84	<0.001	0.99	0.77–1.28	0.961
Number of consultations	501	0.45	0.38–0.54	<0.001	0.46	0.31–0.69	<0.001
Number of laboratory investigations	501	0.75	0.70–0.81	<0.001	0.75	0.66–0.85	<0.001
Pediatric ED, number of investigations*	501				0.88	0.73–1.07	0.197
Diagnosis
Mental/behavioural disorder secondary to substance abuse	129	Reference			Reference
Anxiety or stress-related disorder	102	1.66	1.27–2.17	<0.001	1.20	0.83–1.74	0.322
Intentional self-harm	54	0.91	0.63–1.31	0.599	1.04	0.70–1.55	0.854
Mood disorder	87	1.06	0.83–1.35	0.637	1.10	0.77–1.58	0.602
Schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder	17	0.83	0.59–1.17	0.295	0.88	0.54–1.44	0.621
Behavioural or emotional disorder/syndrome	112	1.28	0.98–1.66	0.068	1.13	0.79–1.62	0.506

∗Interaction with number of investigations.