Hospital Strategies for Reducing Emergency Department Crowding: A Mixed-Methods Study.

ABSTRACT:

Study objective

Emergency department (ED) crowding and patient boarding are associated with increased mortality and decreased patient satisfaction. This study uses a positive deviance methodology to identify strategies among high-performing, low-performing, and high-performance improving hospitals to reduce ED crowding.

Methods

In this mixed-methods comparative case study, we purposively selected and recruited hospitals that were within the top and bottom 5% of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services case-mix-adjusted ED length of stay and boarding times for admitted patients for 2012. We also recruited hospitals that showed the highest performance improvement in metrics between 2012 and 2013. Interviews were conducted with 60 key leaders (physicians, nurses, quality improv

SUBMITTER: Chang AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5828915 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature