1/15/2007
SURVEY: HOSPITAL OVERCROWDING ISSUES INCREASE OVER LAST YEAR, ACCORDING TO HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATION EXECUTIVES
Patient flow bottlenecks results in failure to quickly move patients from emergency rooms; diversion to other hospitals seen as ongoing problem; technology, processes seen as solution
A new survey of top hospital executives, administrators and managers across North America reports that seven out of every eight believe that overcrowding has failed to improve at their facilities in the last year. The overcrowding, according to a majority (60%) of more than 200 survey respondents, continues to force hospitals to divert patients needing urgent medical care to other facilities.
The survey, commissioned last month by TeleTracking Technologies and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), reports more than 80 percent of respondents say overcrowding is one of their top five management concerns. It also reveals that more than 70 percent of the administrators who responded say that while their facilities have a stated goal of admitting patients from their emergency department within two hours of arrival, almost half (48%) fail to meet that goal more than half the time.