https://doi.org/10.4081/itjm.2024.1714

Overcrowding in emergency departments: strategies and solutions for an effective reorganization

Vol. 18 No. 1 (2024)
Published: 21 March 2024
Emergency department, overcrowding, management, crowding, emergency service
Abstract Views: 576
PDF: 288
HTML: 9
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Chiara Busti
Emergency Department, AUSL UMBRIA1 Gubbio, Gualdo Tadino Hospital, Perugia, Italy.
Roberto Marchetti
Villa Maraini Foundation, Rome, Italy.
Manuel Monti
montimanuel@tiscali.it
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0478-110X
Emergency Department, AUSL UMBRIA1 Gubbio, Gualdo Tadino Hospital, Perugia, Italy.

Overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs) is a common and worldwide phenomenon, widely reported even by the non-specialist press. It contributes to a number of consequences that can affect both the number of resources available and the quality of care. Strategies to address this incriminating situation for patients, nurses, doctors, and hospital administrators are urgently needed. For this reason, and based on the input from the Ministry of Health, a series of projects and procedures have been developed in various Italian regions, aimed at reducing the waiting times and the diagnostic-therapeutic process of patients arriving in the ED. In this article, we will examine the main critical issues within EDs and discuss the most impactful strategies and solutions to manage these difficulties.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

PlumX Metrics

PlumX Metrics  provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and many more) in the online environment. Examples include, when research is mentioned in the news or is tweeted about. Collectively known as PlumX Metrics, these metrics are divided into five categories to help make sense of the huge amounts of data involved and to enable analysis by comparing like with like.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC
Lindner G, Woitok BK. Emergency department overcrowding: Analysis and strategies to manage an international phenomenon. Wien Klin Wochenschr 2021;133:229-33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00508-019-01596-7
Chan SS, Cheung NK, Graham CA, Rainer TH. Strategies and solutions to alleviate access block and overcrowding in emergency departments. Hong Kong Med J 2015;21:345-52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12809/hkmj144399
Sonis JD, White BA. Optimizing Patient Experience in the Emergency Department. Emerg Med Clin North Am 2020;38:705-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emc.2020.04.008
Leung S, McDonald E, Watson A, et al. Community healthcare appointments as an alternative to emergency department assessment: an exploration of family acceptability and preferences. CJEM 2023;25:984-91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43678-023-00605-z
Denham A, Hill EL, Raven M, et al. Is the emergency department used as a substitute or a complement to primary care in Medicaid? Health Econ Policy Law 2024;19: 73:91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744133123000270
Stirparo G, Kacerik E, Andreassi A, et al. Emergency Department waiting-time in the post pandemic era: new organizational models, a challenge for the future. Acta Biomed 2023;94:e2023122.
Watson A, Stuart WP. Improving Safety and Quality With an Emergency Department Overcrowding Plan. J Emerg Nurs 2023;49:680-93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2023.06.002
Monti M, L’Angiocola PD, Marchetti R, et al. Strategies for prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a rural Emergency Department. Hong Kong J Emerg Med 2021;28: 114-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1024907920965851
Fenn H, Carman M, Oermann M. Vertical patient flow: is it safe and effective? J Emerg Nurs 2015;41:240-1; quiz 269. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2014.12.006
Korn R, Mansfield M. ED overcrowding: an assessment tool to monitor ED registered nurse workload that accounts for admitted patients residing in the emergency department. J Emerg Nurs 2008;34:441-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2007.06.025
Petrino R, Tuunainen E, Bruzzone G, Garcia-Castrillo L. Patient safety in emergency departments: a problem for health care systems? An international survey. Eur J Emerg Med 2023;30:280-6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/MEJ.0000000000001044
Lichen IM, Berning MJ, Bower SM, et al. Non-pharmacologic interventions improve comfort and experience among older adults in the Emergency Department. Am J Emerg Med 2021;39:15-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajem.2020.04.089
Lin IC, Chiu PW, Lin CH. Impact of the Emergency Procedure Zone on Emergency Care. Medicina (Kaunas) 2023;59:901. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina59050901
Paciullo F, Borgognoni F, L’Angiocola PD, Monti M. The response of the emergency system in the Umbria Region (Italy) during the COVID-19 pandemic. G Ital Cardiol 2020;21:758.
Payne K, Risi D, O’Hare A, et al. Factors that contribute to patient length of stay in the emergency department: A time in motion observational study. Australas Emerg Care 2023;26:321-5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2023.04.002
Paciullo F, Giannandrea D, Gianfredi V, et al. Epidemiology of emergency calls for time-dependent acute illnesses during COVID-19 outbreak in Umbria region (Italy). Ann Ig 2021;33:198-200.

How to Cite

Busti, C., Marchetti, R., & Monti, M. (2024). Overcrowding in emergency departments: strategies and solutions for an effective reorganization. Italian Journal of Medicine, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.4081/itjm.2024.1714
Copyright (c) 2024 the Author(s) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.