Temporal details
All TEE’s were performed within three days of patient arrival, with over 75% of TEE’s performed within the first day. Only seven tests were performed on day three. The time to the performance of TEE was not significantly different between the two groups. The time to cardioversion, however, was significant between the groups. The ED cardioversion group had a markedly shorter time to cardioversion than the cardiology department group, with a mean difference of over 2.5 days longer for the cardiology department patients (p<0.001). The average time to cardioversion was a mean 1.03 ± 0.8 days in the ED group versus 4.17 ± 1.9 days for the cardiology department group. Correspondingly, the total length of stay (LOS) in the hospital was significantly different between the groups with a mean of 1.49 ± 1.5 days for the ED patients versus a nearly five-fold increase of a mean of 7.2 ± 3.5 days for the cardiology department patients (p<0.001). Patients were also kept in the hospital after their cardioversions for significantly different periods of time. The cardiology department cohort was discharged an average of three days after the cardioversion, whereas the ED cohort was discharged less than a day later on average (p<0.001). (Table 2)