Resource:
Improving Patient Flow and Reducing Emergency Department Crowding: A Guide for Hospitals
This guide from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) presents step-by-step instructions to plan and implement patient flow improvement strategies to ease emergency department crowding.
Executive Summary
The Need to Address Emergency Department Crowding
Although you, as a hospital or department leader, are responsible for overseeing performance across a number of dimensions, there are several reasons why addressing emergency department (ED) crowding should be at the forefront of your organization’s improvement efforts:
- ED crowding compromises care quality.
- ED crowding is costly.
- Hospitals will soon report ED crowding measures to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
- ED crowding compromises community trust.
- ED crowding can be mitigated by improving patient flow throughout the hospital.
The purpose of this guide is to present step-by-step instructions for planning and implementing patient flow improvement strategies.
