Emergency department boarding and adverse hospitalization outcomes among patients admitted to a general medical service.

Lord K, Parwani V, Ulrich A, et al. Am J Emerg Med. 2018 Mar 20; [Epub ahead of print].

Overcrowding in the emergency department (ED) may adversely impact patient safety. Less is known about the relationship between extended boarding time in the ED and patient outcomes. This observational study found that patients boarding for more than 4 hours in the ED did not experience worse outcomes in the first 24 hours of admission compared to patients transferred out of the ED to an inpatient service in under 4 hours.

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