The effects of emergency department overcrowding on admitted patient outcomes

Abstract

The objective of this review is to identify the effects of emergency department (ED) overcrowding on admitted patient outcomes.More specifically, the questions are: does ED overcrowding increase the admitted patient's mortality? Does ED overcrowding increase the admitted patient's hospital length-of-stay? Does ED overcrowding increase the delay in door-to-needle time to treatment (time to antibiotic, time to thrombolysis and time to analgesic)?