Emergency Department Overcrowding and Ambulance Turnaround Time.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The aims of this study were to describe overcrowding in regional emergency departments in Seoul, Korea and evaluate the effect of crowdedness on ambulance turnaround time.

Methods

This study was conducted between January 2010 and December 2010. Patients who were transported by 119-responding ambulances to 28 emergency centers within Seoul were eligible for enrollment. Overcrowding was defined as the average occupancy rate, which was equal to the average number of patients staying in an emergency department (ED) for 4 hours divided by the number of beds in the ED. After selecting groups for final analysis, multi-level regression modeling (MLM) was performed with random-effects for EDs, to evaluate associations between occupancy rate and turnaround time.

Results</

SUBMITTER: Lee YJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4482653 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature