The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is doubling down on efforts to address boarding in the emergency department, building on ACEP-generated momentum.
ACEP advocacy led directly to the AHRQ summit on boarding. Among the agency’s next steps, a new notice details “strong and continued interest in receiving health services research grant applications for addressing emergency department boarding and hospital crowding.”
In the notice, AHRQ recognizes that boarding harms patients and is linked to higher mortality rates, increased medical errors, longer hospital stays, increased healthcare costs, staff burnout, ED violence, and strain that ripples through entire healthcare systems and communities.
AHRQ is particularly interested in supporting health services research focusing on financial and regulatory pressure, throughput, data measurement and tracking, workforce solutions, resources and toolkits, or the patient experience.
Researchers can submit applications using AHRQ’s research grant announcements which can be found here.
ACEP advocacy is moving the needle! We will not stop working to create and support opportunities for physician-led solutions to the boarding crisis.
Related:
ACEP tools and resources on boarding
