[Emergency department X-rays requested by physicians or nurses]

Triage nurse requested x-rays reduce waiting-time in the emergency department. Does triage nurse requested x-rays in the emergency department save time for patients with a defined group of low-energy injuries without compromising treatment quality or patient satisfaction?

Analysis of data from a randomized study including a defined group of low-energy injuries in patients at the emergency department requiring x-ray investigation.

A total of 58 patients were included in the intervention group and 48 in the control group. For 50% of the patients, waiting-time from admittance to x-ray request was reduced from 17 to 9 minutes when x-rays were requested by a nurse vs. a physician, and for 75% waiting-time was reduced from 35 to 14 minutes. Time reduction was also found in time from admittance to the patient returned from x-ray examination. Waiting-time was reduced from 56 to 32 minutes, and for 75% of the patients the waiting-time was reduced from 90 to 66 minutes when x-ray was requested by a nurse vs. a physician. Positive X-ray findings were more frequent when the examination was requested by a nurse than by a physician (risk difference: 27.13). The study showed that unnecessary x-ray examinations were equally distributed between the nurses and the physicians. All patients were satisfied with the intervention.

Waiting-time was reduced for a well-defined type of low-energy injury requiring x-ray examination at the emergency department when referred to x-ray by a triage nurse. The intervention did not compromise the quality of the treatment or the patients' satisfaction with the intervention.