Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sinclair, Douglas

Titel

Emergency department overcrowding - implications for paediatric emergency medicine

Ist Teil von

• Paediatrics & child health, 2007-07, Vol.12 (6), p.491-494

Ort / Verlag

England: Pulsus Group Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Oxford Journals 2020 Medicine

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Emergency department (ED) overcrowding has been an international phenomenon for more than 10 years. It is important to understand that ED overcrowding is a measure of health system efficiency and is not strictly related to ED volumes or capacity. ED overcrowding is defined as a situation in which the demand for emergency services exceeds the ability of physicians and nurses to provide quality care within a reasonable time. The major factor resulting in ED overcrowding is the presence of admitted patients in the ED for prolonged periods of time, not a high volume of low-acuity patients. While limited data are available for paediatric EDs, winter respiratory illnesses set the stage for ED overcrowding, which are epidemic in adult or general EDs. Prehospital-, ED- and hospital-related factors are described in the present article, and these may help prevent or manage this important patient safety problem.