Seven out of every eight hospital executives, administrators, and managers believe that emergency department overcrowding has failed to improve at their facilities in the past year, according to a new survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians and TeleTracking Technologies. Sixty percent of the 200 survey respondents say that overcrowding continues to force hospitals to divert patients needing urgent medical care to other facilities. And more than 70% say that although their facilities have a stated goal of admitting patients from their ED within two hours of arrival, 48% fail to meet that goal more than half the time.
To alleviate the overcrowding problem, 57% of survey respondents said they are considering expanding bed capacity to relieve patient-flow challenges, with another 58% saying that added capacity is either at the top or near the top of their priority list. Also, 94% said they believe that using technology to better manage the flow of patients, in combination with changes in staff and processes, can reduce ED overcrowding.
