Each additional 10 minutes of boarding in the emergency department (ED) was associated with a 0.8-minute increase in door-to-provider time, on the basis of data from nearly 900 facilities presented at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) 2022 Scientific Assembly.
The study was important to conduct at this time because ED boarding is significantly limiting ED physicians to provide optimal care, said Camila Tyminski, MD, of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, who presented the findings at the meeting.
"Boarding had steadily been rising prior to the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased ED use. As our data show, boarding had a detrimental impact on ED throughput measures, including increased door to provider time, increased length of stay of the patient discharged from the ED, and increased rate of patients that left before completion of treatment," she said.
"It was important to understand these trends prior to 2019-2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic and national nursing shortage have drastically worsened boarding. This study provided a framework for future studies on boarding across ED’s nationally since the start of the pandemic," she added.
"Post-pandemic, we have hit a crisis point," lead author Anthony Napoli, MD, also of Brown University, told Medscape Medical News
