Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 54, Issue 3 , Pages 381-385 , September 2009

A Pilot Study Examining Undesirable Events Among Emergency Department–Boarded Patients Awaiting Inpatient Beds

Presented as a poster at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine annual meeting, April 2005, Boston, MA.

  • Shan W. Liu, MD, MPH

      Affiliations

    • Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Emergency Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress for correspondence: Shan Liu, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, 55 Fruit Street, Zero Emerson, Room 358, Boston, MA 02114; 617-726-4809, fax 617-724-0917
    • ,
  • Stephen H. Thomas, MD, MPH

      Affiliations

    • Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Emergency Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • James A. Gordon, MD, MPA

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    • Department of Emergency Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
    • ,
  • Azita G. Hamedani, MD, MPH

      Affiliations

    • Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI
    • ,
  • Joel S. Weissman, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

Received 16 August 2008 ,Revised 28 January 2009 ,Accepted 2 February 2009.

References 

  1. Institute of Medicine. Hospital-based emergency care: at the breaking point. Washington, DC: National Academic Press; 2006;
  2. Fee C, Weber EJ, Maak CA, et al. Effect of emergency department crowding on time to antibiotics in patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia. Ann Emerg Med. 2007;50:501–509e501
  3. Pines JM, Hollander JE. Emergency department crowding is associated with poor care for patients with severe pain. Ann Emerg Med. 2008;51:1–5
  4. Hwang U, Richardson LD, Sonuyi TO, et al. The effect of emergency department crowding on the management of pain in older adults with hip fracture. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006;54:270–275
  5. Richardson DB. The access-block effect: relationship between delay to reaching an inpatient bed and inpatient length of stay. Med J Aust. 2002;177:492–495
  6. Chalfin DB, Trzeciak S, Likourezos A, et al. Impact of delayed transfer of critically ill patients from the emergency department to the intensive care unit. Crit Care Med. 2007;35:1477–1483
  7. Diercks DB, Roe MT, Chen AY, et al. Prolonged emergency department stays of non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction patients are associated with worse adherence to the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for management and increased adverse events. Ann Emerg Med. 2007;50:489–496
  8. Weissman JS, Rothschild JM, Bendavid E, et al. Hospital workload and adverse events. Med Care. 2007;45:448–455
  9. Romano PS, Roost LL, Jollis JG. Presentation adapting a clinical comorbidity index for use with ICD-9-CM administrative data: differing perspectives. J Clin Epidemiol. 1993;46:1075–1079
  10. Kohn LT, Corrigan J, Donaldson MS. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2000;

 Supervising editor: Robert L. Wears, MD, MS

 Author contributions: SWL, JAG, and JSW conceived the study and designed the study. SWL performed initial chart abstraction. SHT and AGH performed secondary implicit chart review. SWL managed the data. SHT provided statistical advice. SWL drafted the article, and all authors contributed substantially to its revision. SWL takes responsibility for the paper as a whole.

 Funding and support: By Annals policy, all authors are required to disclose any and all commercial, financial, and other relationships in any way related to the subject of this article that might create any potential conflict of interest. The authors have stated that no such relationships exist. See the Manuscript Submission Agreement in this issue for examples of specific conflicts covered by this statement.

 Publication date: Available online March 13, 2009.

 Reprints not available from the authors.

PII: S0196-0644(09)00114-0

doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.02.001

Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 54, Issue 3 , Pages 381-385 , September 2009

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution