Potential impact of a point-of-care high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assay on emergency department length of stay and patient disposition: findings from a cardiac emergency department

The emergency department (ED) use of safe and time-efficient 0-1-hour assessment algorithms for suspected myocardial infarction (MI) is recommended.1 However, laboratory-based high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) results are often not available within 1 hour from blood draw.2 Point-of-care (POC) hs-cTn assays, with shorter turnaround times (TATs), would solve this problem.2 One study has reported reduced ED length of stay (LOS) from POC-hs-cTnI use in routine clinical care.3 At the Victorian Heart Hospital ED (Monash Health, Australia), we evaluated one of the available POC-hs-cTnI assays, the TriageTrue analyser (QuidelOrtho Corporation, San Diego, California, USA), for which evidence of benefits in actual practice remains limited.4 5 We compared the potential LOS which could result from POC use with the actual LOS using our laboratory Access hsTnI assay.6 Characteristics of both assays are defined and publicly available.6 The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee as a quality assurance project not requiring patient consent.