Emergency Department Boarding Stories

"We are a community hospital caring for about 50,000 visits a year. We have had patients boarding in our emergency department with numerous in waiting room unable to get back to the main ER rooms in order to be seen by our emergency Dr's. As a commitment to provide rapid care we began changing our practice last year and started placing a physician in our nurse triage room to lay eyes on patient's early and start care in the waiting room when all beds were full knowing in advance that patients will be waiting.

Boarding in the emergency department is not an emergency department problem but a nationwide healthcare problem.

It is not how we want to practice. It causes patient safety concerns and patient dissatisfaction. Boarding in the emergency department is not an emergency department problem but a nationwide healthcare problem. Lack of nursing staff, in addition to, boarding in the ED has taken a toll on the acute care climate. We need more resources allocated where there is no limit or cap of number of patient's arriving per hour at their most critical hour for safety.

Respectfully,

Emergency Department Physician"