Access block and ED overcrowding

Emergency department overcrowding and access block.

Emergency Department overcrowding (EDOC) is defined as a situation where the demand for emergency services exceeds the ability of an emergency department (ED) to provide quality care within appropriate time frames. ED overcrowding has been a key issue in Emergency Medicine in Canada for more than 20 years. Despite increased political, administrative, and public awareness, EDOC situations contin...

Access block and emergency department overcrowding

Access block and overcrowding in emergency departments: an empirical analysis.

OBJECTIVE To quantify the determinants of the duration of time spent in an emergency department (ED) for patients who need admission to hospital. METHODS A retrospective analysis of a year of administrative data on all patients presenting to 38 public hospital EDs in Victoria, Australia in 2005/2006. Individual administrative data on patient care time, defined as the time in the ED from first...

Triage and ED Overcrowding: Two Cases of Unexpected Outcome

INTRODUCTION Overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs) has become a serious problem for many EDs in this country. As a result, patients may wait longer time periods after triage prior to evaluation by the ED physician. This places additional importance of initial “at the door” triage as potentially sick patients may be subject to very long waits. Minor misjudgments at triage are an expected p...

Increased health care costs associated with ED overcrowding.

The overcrowding of emergency departments (EDs) with inpatients results in an increased average inpatient length of stay; therefore, overcrowded hospitals have increased costs per patient. All admissions through the ED to our institution for 1988, 1989, and 1990 were reviewed. These admissions were analyzed based on whether they had spent less than 1 day or more than 1 day in the ED, after they...