Root cause analysis of delays to discharge for patients held for serial cardiac troponin levels

OBJECTIVE: Emergency department (ED) patients with symptoms of cardiac ischemia often require a second cardiac troponin (cTn) measurement to rule out non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. We measured the total turnaround time and the component event times following the ordering of the second cTn level to ED discharge to identify root causes of delays. METHODS: We reviewed a random sample of ED discharges following a second normal cTn …