Observational studyBMC emergency medicine2019
Do health care professionals' perceptions help to measure the degree of overcrowding in the emergency department? A pilot study in an Italian University hospital.
Observational study in BMC emergency medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Overcrowding Indicators in Emergency Departments Across Countries: Scoping Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2026Review
- [Adverse moral consequences of overcrowding among emergency department professionals: an explorative survey].Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin · 2026Article
- Measuring emergency department crowding: comparing the NEDOCS and Fenice crowding scores against staff perception.Internal and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Measuring the crowding of emergency departments: an assessment of the NEDOCS in Lombardy, Italy, and the development of a new objective indicator based on the waiting time for the first clinical assessment.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- An Effective Methodology for Scoring to Assist Emergency Physicians in Identifying Overcrowding in an Academic Emergency Department in Thailand.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2024Article
- Evaluation of different machine learning algorithms for predicting the length of stay in the emergency departments: a single-centre study.Frontiers in digital health · 2023Article
- Ochsner Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale (OEDOCS): predicting Emergency Department crowding among diverse academic hospital settings.AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science · 2023Article
- Overcrowding analysis in emergency department through indexes: a single center study.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Observational
- Diagnostic anticipation to reduce emergency department length of stay: a retrospective cohort study in Ferrara University hospital, Italy.BMC health services research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOvercrowding in emergency departments (EDs) is internationally recognized as one of the greatest challenges to healthcare provision. Numerous studies have highlighted the ill-effects of overcrowding, including increased length of stay, mortality and cost per admission. This study measures overcrowding in EDs through health care professionals' perceptions of it, comparing the results with the NEDOCS score, an objectively validated measurement tool and describing meaningful tools and strategies used to manage ED overcrowding.
methodsThis single-centre prospective, observational, pilot study was conducted from February 19th to March 7th, 2018 at the ED in the University Hospital of Ferrara, Italy to measure the agreement of the NEDOCS, comparing objective scores with healthcare professionals' perception of overcrowding, using the kappa statistic assessing linear weights according to Cohen's method. The tools and strategies used to manage ED overcrowding are described.
resultsSeventy-two healthcare professionals (66.1% of 109 eligible subjects) were included in the analyses. The study obtained a total of 262 surveys from 23 ED physicians (31.9%), 31 nurses (43.1%) and 18 nursing assistants (25.0%) and a total of 262 NEDOCS scores. The agreement between the NEDOCS and the subjective scales was poor (k = 0.381, 95% CI 0.313-0.450).
conclusionsThe subjective health care professionals' perceptions did not provide an adequate real-time measure of the current demands and capacity of the ED. A more objective measure is needed to make quality decisions about health care professional needs and the ability to manage patients to ensure the provision of proper care.
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