⇛The Emergency Department (ED) is one of
the most overcrowded units in the inpatient service delivery system.
Delays in services in the ED may have unpleasant consequences for
patients.[1]
Crowding in the ED is defined as having more patients than treatment
rooms or more patients than staff should ideally care for, and
overcrowding was defined as dangerously crowded, with an extreme volume
of patients in ED treatment areas which forces the ED to operate beyond
its capacity.2, 3
In
the Emergency Medicine literature, overcrowding in EDs is described as a
major public health problem due to degradation of the quality of care
(prolonged waiting times, delays to diagnosis and treatment, delays in
treating seriously ill patients), increased costs (leading to
unnecessary diagnostic investigations), and patients’ dissatisfaction.4, 5
Although the most important cause of bottleneck in the ED seems to be a
growing population with non-urgent complaints. Overcrowding in EDs is a
multi-factorial problem worldwide, occurring as a result of prolonged
length of stay (LOS) in the ED, inadequate healthcare personnel
appointment, delayed response to ED consultations, repeated ED visits
(including inappropriate use), and hospital-specific factors (size and
location, lack of available inpatient beds). In this article, we
investigated ED systems of different countries and aimed to find a
solution to overcrowding in the ED in the light of statistical data of
Samsun Education and Research Hospital (SERH) Emergency Department. We
also presented our recommendations to prevent overcrowding in the ED.
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