ER Crowding Tied to Higher In-Hospital Death Rates (917 hits)
(Reuters Health) - Patients admitted to the hospital on days when the emergency department is overcrowded are slightly more likely to die than patients admitted on other days, according to a new study.
"We are suggesting that one reason for this association is, when you have a crowded hospital or emergency department, that the quality of care is not as good, that there are delays in diagnosis, there are delays in treatment, and all these things add up so that for a small set of patients this actually makes a difference in whether they survive or don't survive," said Dr. Benjamin Sun, lead author of the study and an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University.
Emergency room crowding is a known problem in the U.S., and previous research has shown it to be linked with harmful effects.
One study published last year found that when ambulances are diverted away from a crowded ER, as many as three in 100 heart attack patients die unnecessarily.
