Exploring emergency department visits: factors influencing individuals’ decisions, knowledge of triage systems and waiting times, and experiences during visits to a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia

Background In recent years, there has been an increased utilization of emergency departments (EDs) in many countries. Additionally, it is reported that there are major delays in delivering care to ED patients. Longer waiting times are associated with poor patient satisfaction, whereas an understanding of the triage process increases satisfaction. This study aimed to assess ED visitor’s awareness of the triage procedure and their preferences regarding delayed communication. Methods Cross-sectional study of King Abdulaziz Medical City – Emergency Department visitors using a previously validated questionnaire (Seibert 2014) which was translated to Arabic, piloted, and then used for this study. Results A total of 334 questionnaires were returned. The mean age of respondents was 33 years. Regarding primary care physicians, only 16% of respondents said that they have one. About 21% of those tried to communicate with them before coming to the ED. Even though only 11% of respondents knew exactly what triage is, 51% were able to correctly explain why some patients are seen before others. Statistical analysis did not show any factors that are associated with increased knowledge of triage. Most respondents (75%) want to hear updates regarding delays with 69% of them preferring to be updated every 30 min. Conclusions This study showed that the majority of patients do not know what triage means and that most of them want to know how the ED works. Moreover, a lot of respondents said that they do not have a primary care physician. These results support increasing patient awareness by education and involving them if any delay happens.