From research to reality: real-world effectiveness of point-of-care testing in the emergency department

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the real-world impact of Point-of-Care Testing on care timeliness and patient flow in the emergency department. METHODS: A before-and-after, matched-cohort study was conducted involving 25,291 patients with Emergency Severity Index levels 3-4. A POCT group (n=8,746) was compared against a Central Laboratory Group (n=16,545) to measure length of stay (LOS), time to clinical decision (TCD), and laboratory turnaround time (LTAT). RESULTS: POCT achieved a statistically significant 69.3 % reduction in LTAT. TCD improved by 39.5 % (83.4 min; 127.8 vs. 211.2 min) and overall, LOS decreased by 29.2 % (85.4 min; 207.4 vs. 292.8 min). Subgroup analysis showed the greatest efficiency gains in lab-dependent conditions like fever (34.8 % LOS reduction) and gastroenteritis (37.3 %). The actual device usage rate was 34.58 % in daily clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: Real-world implementation of POCT significantly optimizes ED throughput for high-volume, low-severity patients. These findings validate that the clinical benefits observed in previous controlled trials are reproducible and sustainable in complex, high-pressure clinical settings.