Patients who left without being seen (LWBS) by an emergency department doctor | Health Quality Alberta Focus

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Patients who left without being seen (LWBS) by an emergency department doctor

Percentage of patients who chose to leave the emergency department without being seen by an emergency department doctor. (see data definition)

Alberta Health Services, Analytics. “Alberta Emergency Department (Urban) Operational & Performance Dashboard.” (2018) [Dashboard showing monthly and quarterly results for the percentage of patients who chose to leave the emergency department without being seen by an emergency department doctor, by facility].  AHS Tableau Reporting Platform.

What do you see?

  • Are there any trends over time at the hospital where you work or would be most likely to visit?
  • Are there differences in the number of patients leaving between hospitals of the same type (e.g., Large Urban)?
  • Could the number of patients who visited each emergency department be a reason for the differences that you see between sites?

Why is it meaningful?

Understanding "patients who left without being seen (LWBS) by an emergency department doctor"

This chart illustrates the percentage of patients who had an initial assessment by a nurse in the triage area, but for unknown reasons, chose to leave the emergency department before an assessment by a doctor and treatment could occur. The percentage of patients who leave without being seen is very important for hospitals to monitor because patients whose health concerns are not addressed can be at a safety risk.

There may also be some patients who leave for the right reasons. For example, a patient who, while in the waiting room, successfully booked an appointment with an after-hours clinic for an ear ache.

How could the percentage of patients who leave the emergency department without being seen help us to understand and improve the quality of emergency department care?

  • A higher percentage of patients who left without being seen is often a good indication of crowding in the emergency department. Comparing the information in this chart to emergency department patient volumes can be helpful to seeing if a high percentage of patients who left without being seen might be connected to high patient volumes for the same time period. Similarly, a higher percentage of patients who left without being seen might reflect patients’ dissatisfaction with the wait to see an emergency doctor.
  • The percentage of patients who leave the emergency department without being seen may also relate to patients’ satisfaction with the initial communication they receive in the emergency department.

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Results for November 2019 to March 2020 are not available for the University of Alberta Hospital and the Stollery Children’s Hospital.