Emergency Department Clinical Quality Registries: A Scoping Review

Emergency departments (ED) are vital within the health system, often representing the first hospital contact for patients who are undifferentiated and may be critically ill. Although advancements in digital technology and increasing use of electronic medical records in health systems have led to the dramatic growth of large data sets, the presence of ED clinical registries to measure quality of care in the literature is currently unknown.

Our scoping review aims to investigate the extent of emergency department clinical registries reported in peer-reviewed literature.

We conducted a scoping review of ED registries in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Searches were undertaken in PUBMED, EMBASE, and SCOPUS. Studies were included if they described a clinical registry with a focus on the ED.

We identified 60 manuscripts with 27 identified as primary registries (6 had a general scope, 21 were condition or population specific). The remaining 33 papers were investigational reports sourced from the identified primary registries. Funding sources were identified for some registries: three by research grants, two by medical colleges, five by government organizations or initiatives, two by pharmaceutical companies, and three by research institutes. No funding information was provided in 12 studies. The reported registry periods ranged from 31 days to 4018 days (median 365 days, IQR 181-1309 days). A grey literature search revealed that six registries were ongoing.

Internationally, there appears to be a wide degree of heterogeneity with primary ED registry publications and secondary publications. Having a standardized approach to ED registries is needed. Integrating ED registries with a learning health system model will enable clinicians to serve their community proactively and with a focus on quality, rather than the current safety-focused approach.