Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Emerg Med J. 2018 Jul;35(7):447-448. doi: 10.1136/emermed-2017-206796. Epub 2018 Mar 21.
ED overcrowding is an increasing problem worldwide that may negatively affect quality of care and patient outcomes. We aimed to study ED overcrowding across European centres.
Questionnaires on structure and process of care, including crowding, were distributed to 68 centres participating in a large European study on traumatic brain injury (Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury).
Of the 65 centres included in the analysis, 32 (49%) indicated that overcrowding was a frequent problem and 28 (43%) reported that patients were placed in hallways 'multiple times a day'; 27 (41%) stated that multiple times a day, there was no bed available when a patient needed to be admitted. Ambulance diversion rarely occurred in the participating centres.
Similar to reports from other parts of the world, ED crowding appears to be a considerable problem in Europe. More research is needed to determine effective ways to reduce overcrowding.
ED 过度拥挤是一个全球性的日益严重的问题，可能会对医疗质量和患者预后产生负面影响。我们旨在研究欧洲各中心的 ED 过度拥挤情况。
向参与一项关于创伤性脑损伤的大型欧洲研究（欧洲合作神经创伤有效性研究创伤性脑损伤）的 68 个中心分发了关于护理结构和流程的问卷，包括拥挤情况。
在纳入分析的 65 个中心中，32 个（49%）表示过度拥挤是一个频繁的问题，28 个（43%）报告说患者每天多次被安置在走廊中；27 个（41%）表示，当患者需要入院时，每天多次没有可用的床位。参与中心很少有救护车分流。
与来自世界其他地区的报告类似，ED 拥挤似乎是欧洲的一个严重问题。需要进一步研究以确定减少过度拥挤的有效方法。
