Improving Sleep and the Patient Experience in the Emergency Department

Summary

Background The emergency department is a chaotic place with high levels of noise and light 24 hours a day. Patients are often boarded overnight while they await tests or consultations scheduled for the morning. Sleep deprivation, high noise levels have been associated with negative patient experiences and outcomes in other clinical settings. Interventions to counter the effects of noise and light in the emergency department for patients staying overnight have not been investigated.

Objective To determine if sleep and other aspects of the patient experience can be improved for patients boarded overnight in the Emergency Department with the use of a sleep mask and ear plugs.

Methods A randomized control study will take place in the Emergency Department of Kingston General Hospital. Eligible patients will randomized to receive either sleep aids (sleep mask and ear plugs) or standard treatment (no sleep aids). The primary outcome will be sleep quality, assessed by Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire. Secondary outcomes include patient satisfaction, hours of sleep, blood pressure, heart rate, new-onset delirium, patient's sense of feeling well-rested and patient overall sense of well-being. The primary analysis will be intention-to-treat comparing primary and secondary outcomes between the two groups in an unadjusted fashion. A secondary analysis will involve linear regression to explore the association between treatment group and Richards-Campbell Sleep Score, controlling for potential confounders.

Importance Determining the feasibility and efficacy of sleep masks and earplugs for patients in the emergency department to improve sleep and the patient experience has never been done before. If found to be effective, this relatively low- cost intervention could be implemented in emergency departments across the country and around the world.

Conditions

• Sleep Deprivation

Interventions

DEVICE

Sleep mask

OTHER

Standard of care

Standard of care as decided by treating emergency physician

DEVICE

Ear Plugs

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Kingston Health Sciences Centre

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Stuart Douglas, MD · PGY3 - Emergency Medicine, Queen's University

• Steven Brooks, MD, FRCP · Emergency Physician, Queen's University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-07-31

Primary Completion

2015-09-30

Completion

2015-12-31