Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32552701›Full record

ArticleBMC emergency medicine2020

Prevalence of crowding, boarding and staffing levels in Swedish emergency departments - a National Cross Sectional Study.

Jens Wretborn, Joakim Henricson, Ulf Ekelund, Daniel B Wilhelms

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC emergency medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. The evolving prehospital care: a 12-year retrospective analysis.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Emergency department overcrowding and its associated factors at HARME medical emergency center in Eastern Ethiopia.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2024
    Article
  6. Review
  7. Observational
  8. Article
  9. Inter-rater reliability of the Clinical Frailty Scale by staff members in a Swedish emergency department setting.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2022
    Observational
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Observational
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Jens WretbornDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Local Health Care Services in Central Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden.
Joakim HenricsonDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Local Health Care Services in Central Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden.
Ulf EkelundDepartment of Clinical Sciences Lund, Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Daniel B WilhelmsDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Local Health Care Services in Central Östergötland, Linköping, Sweden. daniel.wilhelms@liu.se.ORCID 0000-0001-6347-3970

Funding

Region Östergötland LIO-532001 and LIO-700271Region Skåne .
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEmergency Department (ED) crowding occurs when demand for care exceeds the available resources. Crowding has been associated with decreased quality of care and increased mortality, but the prevalence on a national level is unknown in most countries.

methodWe performed a national, cross-sectional study on staffing levels, staff workload, occupancy rate and patients waiting for an in-hospital bed (boarding) at five time points during 24 h in Swedish EDs.

resultsComplete data were collected from 37 (51% of all) EDs in Sweden. High occupancy rate indicated crowding at 12 hospitals (37.5%) at 31 out of 170 (18.2%) time points. Mean workload (measured on a scale from 1, no workload to 6, very high workload) was moderate at 2.65 (±1.25). Boarding was more prevalent in academic EDs than rural EDs (median 3 vs 0). There were an average of 2.6, 4.6 and 3.2 patients per registered nurse, enrolled nurse and physician, respectively.

conclusionED crowding based on occupancy rate was prevalent on a national level in Sweden and comparable with international data. Staff workload, boarding and patient to staff ratios were generally lower than previously described.

Indexed as

CrowdingPersonnel Staffing and SchedulingBed OccupancyCross-Sectional StudiesEmergency Service, HospitalHospital MortalityHumansLength of StayPrevalenceQuality of Health CareSwedenWorkloadBoardingCrowdingEmergency department

Identifiers

PMID32552701
PMCPMC7301476

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.