Access block and overcrowding in emergency departments: an empirical analysis

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...

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

Overcrowding in Emergency Departments: Effects on Patients

Recently there has been increased discussion on the overcrowded conditions in many of California’s emergency departments. A recent article published in the Western Journal of Medicine details the result of a comprehensive survey among directors of California EDs. Over 96% reported episodic overcrowding in EDs and some reported nearly daily overcrowding. The results are also similar to that cond...

Overcrowding in the emergency departments: Challenges and opportunities for improvement.

With the advent of Emergency Medicine, one can observe an increase in the number of Emergency Departments (ED) across the country. However, most EDs struggle due to an overwhelming number of patients. Overcrowding can lead to delays in patient care. For a city like Karachi which is an active disaster zone, preemptive preparedness is required in the face of terror threats and such overcrowding n...