The Impact of Increased Number of Acute Care Beds to Reduce Emergency Room Wait Time

Reducing ED wait times is a top health care priority for the Ontario government and hospitals in Ontario are incentivised to meet provincial ED wait time targets. In this study, we considered the costs and benefits associated with increasing the number of acute-care beds to reduce the time an admitted patient spends boarding in the ED. A shorter hospital LOS has often been cited as a potential benefit associated with shorter ED wait times. We derived a multivariable Cox regression model to examine this association. We found no significant association between ED boarding times and the time to discharge. Using a Markov model, we estimated an increased annual operating cost of $2.1m to meet the prescribed wait time targets. We concluded that increasing acute-care beds to reduce ED wait times would require significant funding from hospitals and would have no effect on total length of stay of hospitalized patients.

Grantor dc:publisher

Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• McKay, Jennifer

Contributors dc:contributor

• Forster, Alan
• Van Walraven, Carl

• emergency room wait times
• hospital length of stay
• emergency department crowding
• cost benefit analysis

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-4068

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/33172