Improving Patient Flow and Reducing Emergency Department Crowding

According to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, hospital emergency care is "at the breaking point." Roughly 500,000 ambulances are diverted each year - that's one diversion every minute. Many studies have shown a link between emergency department (ED) overcrowding and poor quality care.

Improving patient flow can potentially reduce ED overcrowding.  However, patient flow improvements have been neither widespread nor rigorously evaluated.  It remains to be seen whether patient flow improvement strategies can be successfully implemented in a diverse range of hospitals.

This project in collaboration with the Urban Institute, the AHA Quality Center, and the American College of Emergency Physicians is evaluating strategies for improving patient flow and reducing ED overcrowding, advancing the development of quality measurement in EDs, and promoting the spread of promising practices to a wide audience. 

HRET and its partners are working with a consortium of six diverse hospitals to address the following questions:

  • What factors facilitate or hinder the implementation and maintenance of patient flow improvement strategies?
  • What are the costs and return on investment of patient flow improvement strategies?
  • Does the implementation of patient flow improvement strategies correlate with changes in ED crowding, patient satisfaction, and staff satisfaction
  • What are barriers and facilitators of the collection of ED performance measures?

The project will broadly disseminate promising patient flow improvement practices to a wide audience of quality improvement administrators and ED physicians and nurses. Research findings from this project will also inform the work of agencies and organizations that are currently considering ED performance measures.

For more information on this project, contact Megan McHugh at (312) 422-2634 or mmchugh@aha.org.