Prevalence of crowding, boarding and staffing levels in Swedish emergency departments - A National Cross Sectional Study
Wretborn, Jens LU ; Henricson, Joakim ; Ekelund, Ulf LU
and Björk Wilhelms, Daniel
(2020)
In BMC Emergency Medicine
20(1).
- Abstract
Background: Emergency Department (ED) crowding occurs when demand for care exceeds the available resources. Crowding has been associated with decreased quality of care and increased mortality, but the prevalence on a national level is unknown in most countries. Method: We performed a national, cross-sectional study on staffing levels, staff workload, occupancy rate and patients waiting for an in-hospital bed (boarding) at five time points during 24 h in Swedish EDs. Results: Complete data were collected from 37 (51% of all) EDs in Sweden. High occupancy rate indicated crowding at 12 hospitals (37.5%) at 31 out of 170 (18.2%) time points. Mean workload (measured on a scale from 1, no workload to 6, very high workload) was moderate at... (More)
Background: Emergency Department (ED) crowding occurs when demand for care exceeds the available resources. Crowding has been associated with decreased quality of care and increased mortality, but the prevalence on a national level is unknown in most countries. Method: We performed a national, cross-sectional study on staffing levels, staff workload, occupancy rate and patients waiting for an in-hospital bed (boarding) at five time points during 24 h in Swedish EDs. Results: Complete data were collected from 37 (51% of all) EDs in Sweden. High occupancy rate indicated crowding at 12 hospitals (37.5%) at 31 out of 170 (18.2%) time points. Mean workload (measured on a scale from 1, no workload to 6, very high workload) was moderate at 2.65 (±1.25). Boarding was more prevalent in academic EDs than rural EDs (median 3 vs 0). There were an average of 2.6, 4.6 and 3.2 patients per registered nurse, enrolled nurse and physician, respectively. Conclusion: ED crowding based on occupancy rate was prevalent on a national level in Sweden and comparable with international data. Staff workload, boarding and patient to staff ratios were generally lower than previously described.
(Less)
- author
- Wretborn, Jens
LU
; Henricson, Joakim
; Ekelund, Ulf
LU
and Björk Wilhelms, Daniel
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-06-18
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Boarding, Crowding, Emergency department
- in
- BMC Emergency Medicine
- volume
- 20
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 50
- publisher
- BioMed Central (BMC)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85086692940
- pmid:32552701
- ISSN
- 1471-227X
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12873-020-00342-x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- ddf89c51-4472-4ced-bce5-1a07bcb2a1a5
- date added to LUP
- 2020-07-08 08:15:38
- date last changed
- 2024-06-12 16:58:42
@article{ddf89c51-4472-4ced-bce5-1a07bcb2a1a5,
abstract = {{<p>Background: Emergency Department (ED) crowding occurs when demand for care exceeds the available resources. Crowding has been associated with decreased quality of care and increased mortality, but the prevalence on a national level is unknown in most countries. Method: We performed a national, cross-sectional study on staffing levels, staff workload, occupancy rate and patients waiting for an in-hospital bed (boarding) at five time points during 24 h in Swedish EDs. Results: Complete data were collected from 37 (51% of all) EDs in Sweden. High occupancy rate indicated crowding at 12 hospitals (37.5%) at 31 out of 170 (18.2%) time points. Mean workload (measured on a scale from 1, no workload to 6, very high workload) was moderate at 2.65 (±1.25). Boarding was more prevalent in academic EDs than rural EDs (median 3 vs 0). There were an average of 2.6, 4.6 and 3.2 patients per registered nurse, enrolled nurse and physician, respectively. Conclusion: ED crowding based on occupancy rate was prevalent on a national level in Sweden and comparable with international data. Staff workload, boarding and patient to staff ratios were generally lower than previously described.</p>}},
author = {{Wretborn, Jens and Henricson, Joakim and Ekelund, Ulf and Björk Wilhelms, Daniel}},
issn = {{1471-227X}},
keywords = {{Boarding; Crowding; Emergency department}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
series = {{BMC Emergency Medicine}},
title = {{Prevalence of crowding, boarding and staffing levels in Swedish emergency departments - A National Cross Sectional Study}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12873-020-00342-x}},
doi = {{10.1186/s12873-020-00342-x}},
volume = {{20}},
year = {{2020}},
}