Dive Brief:
- A recent study from George Washington University published in Health Affairs finds many of the most crowded emergency departments in the U.S. had not adopted interventions to address the issue in the period from 2007–2010.
- It found the average number of interventions increased from 5.2 to 6.6 over that time, and that overall crowded EDs adopted more interventions than less crowded EDs.
- However, the researchers found in the most crowded quartile of EDs, 19% did not use bedside registration and 94% did not use surgical schedule smoothing, which coordinates surgeries with inpatient bed availability.
Dive Insight:
The real issue with ED crowding is not just one of inconvenience, but one of poorer patient outcomes, the researchers say.
Co-author Dr. Jesse Pines, professor of emergency medicine and health policy at the GW University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, concedes, however, the investment in such interventions can be prohibitive. "But when it comes to cost, addressing crowding can be potentially expensive," he told the Washington Business Journal. "The places that have been effective at reducing crowding have had to invest a lot of time and money into it."
At the same time, he notes, hospitals should consider that they already have to report ED crowding to CMS, and that ultimately they could be penalized based on those figures.