Patient characteristics between hospital levels (N=10 533)
| Academic medical centre (n=5618) | Regional hospital (n=4252) | District hospital (n=663) | Total (N=10 533) | p Value† | |
| Patient category‡ | |||||
| Trauma | 1357 (24.2) | 1235 (29.0) | 183 (27.6) | 2775 (26.3) | <0.001* |
| Non-trauma | 4261 (78.5) | 3017 (71) | 460 (72.4) | 7758 (73.7) | |
| Gender‡ | |||||
| Male | 3021 (53.8) | 2323 (54.6) | 346 (52.2) | 5690 (54.0) | 0.432 |
| Female | 2597 (46.2) | 1929 (45.4) | 317 (47.8) | 4843 (46.0) | |
| Age (years)§ | 51.3±20.3 | 48.9±20.9 | 49.0±21.2 | 50.2±20.6 | <0.001* |
| TTS‡ | |||||
| Level 1 | 556 (9.9) | 233 (5.5) | 37 (5.6) | 826 (7.8) | <0.001* |
| Level 2 | 2630 (46.8) | 1837 (43.1) | 199 (30.0) | 4663 (44.3) | |
| Level 3 | 2382 (42.4) | 2063 (48.5) | 383 (57.8) | 4828 (45.8) | |
| Level 4 | 50 (0.9) | 122 (2.9) | 44 (6.6) | 216 (2.1) | |
| TTAS‡ | |||||
| Level 1 | 242 (4.3) | 146 (3.4) | 18 (2.7) | 406 (3.9) | <0.001* |
| Level 2 | 1042 (18.5) | 697 (16.4) | 74 (11.2) | 1813 (17.2) | |
| Level 3 | 2296 (40.9) | 1811 (42.6) | 249 (37.6) | 4356 (41.4) | |
| Level 4 | 1377 (24.5) | 1033 (24.3) | 225 (33.9) | 2635 (25.0) | |
| Level 5 | 661 (11.8) | 565 (13.3) | 97 (14.6) | 1323 (12.6) | |
| Disposition‡ | |||||
| Discharged | 3700 (65.9) | 3086 (72.6) | 543 (81.9) | 7329 (69.6) | <0.001* |
| Death | 30 (0.5) | 19 (0.4) | 2 (0.3) | 51 (0.5) | |
| Hospitalisation | 1888 (33.6) | 1147 (27.0) | 118 (17.8) | 3153 (29.9) | |
| LOS (h)¶ | 3.0 (1.4, 7.7) | 1.8 (0.9, 3.3) | 1.2 (0.6, 2.1) | 2.2 (1.1, 4.7) | <0.001* |
| Medical resource consumption¶ | 5 (2, 7) | 4 (2, 6) | 3 (1, 5) | 4 (2, 6) | <0.001* |
Values are number (%), mean±SD or median (IQR)
↵* Indicates a significant difference, p<0.05.
†p Values are based on ‡χ2, §analysis of variance and ¶Kruskal–Wallis test.
LOS, length of stay; TTAS, Taiwan triage and acuity scale; TTS, Taiwan Triage System.