Emergency overcrowding an incurable disease.docVIP

Estella Critical Care 2011, 15:428 /content/15/3/428 LETTER Emergency overcrowding: an incurable disease? Angel Estella* See related review by Forero et al., /content/15/2/216 e article by Forero and colleagues describes the are necessary. Yet there is an ethical justi? cation that situation of the emergency department (ED) [1], high- carries weight – in a crowded service the safety of our lighting common problems in di? erent countries that patients is compromised, increasing the risk of delaying have remained unchanged and unresolved for decades [2]. Is there a solution to the collapse of emergency services or is it an incurable disease? the early detection of time-dependent diseases. Regarding the emergency out? ows, in our environment the main reason for overcrowding observation units is the presence of patients awaiting ward hospital beds. An obser vation unit is not a prehospitalization ward; in Figure 1 shows the ? ows of input and output in an ED – modulating these ? ows can treat the pr e clinician has no doubt that it is possible to reduce the theory, these units were designed to accommodate in? ows under the argument that the ED should be patients while diagnostic uncertainties were being resolved handled with the di? erent purpose for which a priori or and acute processes were being treated rapidly, thus theoretically it has been designed – the reality is that the ED works like a quick family medicine service, and minor diseases are the predominant reason for consultation. avoiding unnecessary hospitalization [3]. Based on an exercise of responsibility, there is much work to do – starting with politicians, healthcare mana- Measures of popu lation healthcare education and restric- gers, health professionals and the public – to foment a tion of attenti