Overcrowding In The Emergency Department

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Over Crowding
Overcrowding is another major factor in wait times in the emergency department . There is a strong link between overcrowding and length of stay of admitted patients in the hospital. When EMS is bringing in patients, and the waiting room is filling up, so are the emergency department beds. As fast as patients would like to be seen, it is not realistic. There has to be room in the hospital itself. Which means admitted patients that are on the floors have to be discharged or transferred before that bed becomes available so that the patients in the Emergency Department can be moved to the floor. The Emergency Department was created to stabilize patients so that they can be moved to the floor for the rest of their care until these …show more content…

What happens when the hospital is overcrowded and there are no more beds available on the floors?? The hospital goes on diversion, which is when ambulances have to take patients that would normally come to the overcrowded hospital to other hospitals who have room, which can cause delays in their treatment, and can be a matter of life or death. Diversion is not just a problem for hospitals, it causes problems with EMS as well. This causes them to be tied up longer transporting the patients to other hospitals (possibly farther away), which causes delays in responding to other 911 calls. From 2003 to 2009 the wait times in the ER increased by 25%. “Ambulance diversion has been used since the early 1990s. It has been linked to several negative consequences, such as prolonged transport times, delays in care, increased mortality, and lower hospital revenue.”( Delgado, M. Kit, Lesley J. Meng, Mary P. Mercer, Jesse M. Pines, Douglas K. Owens, and Gregory S.Zaric, 11 June 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.) The wait times in EDs that went on diversion during these times were even longer. I know that 25% is not a huge difference, but when the volume has increased but the number of staff and available beds stays the same, the waiting room starts filling up and wait times increase. Also not every patient can go to the same floor

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