Crowded ERs result in patients going home

ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Many hospital emergency room patients are "boarded," or held in the ER after being admitted, prolonging the wait for needed treatment, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at the University of South Florida say as wait times in hospital ERs increase, the rate of patients in waiting rooms leaving before getting treated increases "significantly."

Dr. Sandra Schneider, emergency physician and president of American College of Emergency Physicians, says research shows that when hospital leadership creates and enforces policies to more rapidly move admitted patients out of the emergency department, the wait for an in-patient bed drops by more than 50 percent.

"When our hospital implemented a policy of moving admitted patients out of the ER and into in-patient beds within 30 minutes, overall time from bed assignment to transfer to the appropriate floor dropped by more than half," study author Dr. Daniel Pauze of Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y, says in a statement. "It shows that we can get patients out of the ER and into inpatient beds if hospital leadership demands it. It's good for both patient safety and the hospital's bottom line when you stop people walking out the door without treatment."