Patients in Pennsylvania depend on timely access to quality emergency care. Yet, as discussed in a recent white paper published by the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED), the commonwealth’s hospitals and emergency departments are facing a crisis: hospital crowding and emergency room boarding.
“A Crisis in Pennsylvania’s Emergency Departments: Hospital Crowding and Emergency Department Boarding of Admitted Patients,” explores the problems facing Pennsylvania’s emergency departments and hospitals and offers several recommendations for solutions.
In addition to reading the white paper, view a PowerPoint presentation by Daniel Wehner, MD, on behalf of PAMED’s Emergency Department Overcrowding Task Force.
In 2009-2010, nearly six million patients received care in 160 emergency departments across the state. That’s a 27 percent increase from 1999-2000 data, even though the number of emergency departments simultaneously decreased by more than 16 percent.
Less capacity but more patients means emergency departments are more crowded than ever.
The whitepaper points to studies that have shown that emergency department crowding negatively impacts patient care, safety, outcomes, length of stay, timely administration of antibiotics, morbidity, mortality, and health care costs.