Causes and countermeasures of emergency department overcrowding / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

With the progresses of aggravation of social population aging degree and elevation of health awareness, the emergency medical resources are difficult to meet the increasing demand for emergency medical services of patients, leading to the increase of congestion in the Department of Emergency that has threatened the safety of the entire medical and health system. Among the patients, because the elderly patient diseases are characterized by coexistence of multiple diseases, the complexity of diagnosis and treatment, etc, they occupy a large number of emergency medical resources, resulting in the main important factor affecting the overcrowding in emergency department. Therefore, we have comprehensively analyzed the domestic and foreign researches related to the overcrowding in emergency departments, summarized the effect of elderly patients on the overcrowding and reviewed the corresponding mitigation measures, expecting to provide a reference for the study of emergency department overcrowding in China.