Emergency department (ED) crowding has been a pressing concern in healthcare systems in the U.S. and other developed countries. As such, many researchers have studied its effects on outcomes within the ED. In contrast, this study from HIP Investigator Dr. Brian Patterson focuses on the effects of ED crowding on system performance outside the ED-specifically, on post-ED care utilization.
Utilizing a dataset assembled from more than four years of microdata from a large U.S. hospital and exhaustive billing data in an integrated health system, they found that specifically, increased workload leads to more post-discharge care events for patients that are discharged home from the ED. These findings provide insights for ED physicians about the impact of their behavior on the healthcare system. .
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