Impact of an express admit unit on emergency department length of stay.

Background: Express admit units (EAUs) have been proposed as a way to expedite patient flow through the Emergency Department (ED).

Objectives: We sought to determine the effect of opening a five-bed EAU unit for temporary placement of admitted patients on our ED length of stay (LOS) and waiting room times (WT).

Method: This was a before-and-after interventional study of the 3-month period immediately before (pre-EAU) and after opening (post-EAU) of the EAU.