- A research letter in JAMA Network Open indicates that patients admitted in hospital emergency departments (ED) are likelier to wait longer than the recommended four-hour waiting period for an inpatient bed. Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine examined electronic health record data between from January 2020 to December 2021 and identified an association between occupancy above the 85 percent threshold and boarding times. In comparison, hospitals with occupancy of 70 percent or lower had median boarding times of less than three hours. Even though the study covered a period during which hospitals were being strained by the pandemic, ED boarding increased even when hospital occupancy didn’t surge. (Letter here)
October 3, 2022
Providers