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High Bed Occupancy, ED Overcrowding in Hospitals are Bad for Patients
In the editorial, Dr Sally McCarthy, President of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Director of Emergency Medicine at, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, discusses hospital occupancy levels and ED overcrowding.
Dr McCarthy said that reducing the number of hospital beds, and increasing occupancy above 85 per cent in the name of operational efficiency, has clearly had a negative effect, as the demand for hospital beds in Australia exceeds supply.
The root cause of the problem will remain unless hospital capacity is addressed in an integrated approach at both national and state levels, Dr McCarthy said.
In an accompanying article in the MJA, Dr Andrew Keegan, Adjunct Associate Professor at the Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, said that high bed occupancy rates have been shown to be associated with greater risks of hospital-associated infection and to have a negative impact on staff health.
Clinical observational data have suggested that bed occupancies above 85 per cent could adversely affect safe, effective hospital function, Dr Keegan said.
There is an urgent need to develop meaningful outcome measures of patient care that could replace the process measures currently in use.
In a second accompanying article in the MJA, Dr Rodney Jones, Statistical Advisor at Healthcare Analysis and Forecasting, Camberley, Surrey, UK, said that occupancy and hospital size are linked and, therefore, hospital size is important when examining occupancy levels.
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