Background: Hospital capacity constraints remain an immense concern throughout the US and has been recognized as a national crisis for greater than a decade. ER overcrowding is of particular concern due to its downstream effects. It occurs when admitted patients are boarded in the emergency room for greater than 2 hours, while inpatient beds become [...]

Background: Over 6-months after the end of the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency, U.S. hospitals are still experiencing unprecedented levels of sustained stress with national hospital occupancy remaining 10 percentage points higher than before the pandemic. The demand for hospitalization is likely to increase over the next decade as the U.S. population ages, which will place [...]

Background: Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a commonly encountered challenge and is associated with adverse events and poor patient satisfaction.  One of the factors that can contribute to ED overcrowding is the boarding of admitted patients in the ED. Various methods have been implemented to improve this issue with limited success.     Purpose: A collaborative workgroup [...]

Background: Hospital overcrowding and extended Emergency Department (ED) wait times are challenges facing most urban hospitals today. There is growing evidence to show that overcrowding in the ED is associated with increased morbidity, mortality and patient dissatisfaction. To improve overcrowding, hospitals have focused on discharge before noon (DBN) as an impactful and sustainable remedy. While [...]