Urgent assessment in emergency departments can reduce surgical decision time and overcrowding
Monday, August 8, 2011 - 15:00
in Health & Medicine
The use of Acute Care Emergency Surgical Service (ACCESS) in emergency departments (EDs) can lead to significant reductions in key patient measures, such as length of stay, surgical decision-making time and "time-to-stretcher" (one measure of overall ED overcrowding), according to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Emergency departments are a crucial point of access to the health care system for patients with a broad spectrum of injuries and illnesses, and overcrowding has been identified as a widespread and serious problem with adverse consequences, both in the United States and Canada.