| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 醫務管理研究所 === 99 === Background: Emergency Department (ED) Overcrowding is the problem that healthcare facilities most concern. ED Overcrowding causes a variety of undesirable consequences, including impairing evaluation and treatment, increasing patient waiting times, decreasing the quality of care, and so on. In order to provide patients with better emergency medical care environment, to find the causes of ED overcrowding and to solve them is very important issue.
Objective: The objectives of this study are three folded: (A) to understand the ED overcrowding situation; (B) to research the factors that cause ED overcrowding; (C) to develop the action plans to improve ED overcrowding conditions.
Method: This study uses descriptive statistics to analyze patient arrival time, patient volume, ED beds and space usage, patient characteristics, diagnostic tests categories and process time. In addition, this study uses multiple regresstion to quantify the impact of patient characteristics, ED input factors and output factors on patient waiting time and length of stay. Combine with the ED overcrowding definitions and indicators literature review collection, the study systematize the buttleneck the study subject facing on.
Result: This study finds that the causes of ED overcrowding this hospital are a large number of patients and the long wait in test result, disposition, and inpatient. Based on this result, the study suggests that to transfer patients with low disease severity to outpatient, to put into use information technology to announce test results immediately, to inform patients the time he or she may take, to relieve access block, and to transfer patients actively may be feasible action plans.
Conclusion: ED overcrowding is a very common problem, to solve it is not only the responsibility of emergency department, but the target of various departments and administration units. To make concerted efforts to face this problem is the key of effective improvements.
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