Emergency Department Boarding Stories

"Almost consistently for the last four to five months our department has had almost every physical bed occupied by a psychiatric boarder (all waiting for more than three days and one for more than a week) or inpatient boarders. During my last shift, I saw every patient in the triage booth or a hallway, usually returning them back to the waiting room while we awaited results in order to keep seeing the other patients in the waiting room. Discharging most without every seeing the a bed in the Emergency Department. Sometimes admitting the patient while still in the waiting room!  We have been forced to use closets and storage rooms for exams of sensitive areas (breasts, genitals, buttock, etc.) because there is no standard rooms to perform them. This day was not an aberrancy. This has been our normal for at least four to five months with no sign of easing up."