Moral Implications of Emergency Department Crowding

Emergency Department (ED) crowding, defined as "an extreme volume of patients in ED treatment areas, forcing the ED to operate beyond its capacity" has become a public health crisis in the United States. ED crowding can lead to compromised care which threatens the moral values medicine has been built upon (Cowan and Trzeciak 2005). This thesis offers a brief history of the development of hospital based EDs to demonstrate the origins of ED crowding, then moves on to analyze the moral dilemmas posed by crowding. It examines the causes of ED crowding and potential solutions to the issue, and concludes with brief remarks about how the health care system might be reformed to alleviate the burden of crowded EDs.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Brassard, Kimberly Lynn

• Emergency Department Crowding

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38562

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/38562