Open AccessPediatric ED departmental complexity: a different approach to the concept of ED crowding
Author(s) -
Brett Taylor,
Michael D. Young
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
cjem. canadian journal of emergency medical care/cjem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1481-8043
pISSN - 1481-8035
DOI - 10.1007/s43678-022-00261-9
Subject(s) - crowding , emergency department , medicine , triage , proxy (statistics) , overcrowding , emergency medicine , metric (unit) , medical emergency , nursing , psychology , computer science , operations management , neuroscience , machine learning , economics , economic growth
Emergency department (ED) crowding is a significant problem in Canada and internationally and is associated with the potential for patient harm. Although pediatric patients represent a significant proportion of overall ED visits, there is limited research on pediatric ED crowding. The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians defines department crowding as a mismatch between the required and available resources to provide timely emergency care. We propose that rather than crowding, it is better to think of ED patient populations as being more or less "complex" as defined by proxies of the human and physical resources needed for patient management. The study objectives are to explore the utility of a simple and easily available retrospective metric of ED complexity, and to assess the relationship this measure has on patient outcomes in a pediatric ED.