Researchers examined the records of Level I and Level II adult trauma patients at Saint Louis University Hospital who were admitted from July 2010 through June 2011. They wanted to assess the relationship between length of stay in the ED and mortality.
While they found that high volume in the ED did lead to an increase in length of stay, they did not find that a long length of stay (more than four hours) and mortality were associated.
“Overcrowding may impact overall patient satisfaction and hospital staff stress, but the primary outcome for trauma care — survival — remained favorable at about 4.5 percent,” said study co-author Eric Armbrecht, PhD, of the Centers for Outcomes Research at Saint Louis University.
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