For these reasons, increases in ED visit volume have out-paced population growth in the U.S., Can-ada, and France. In many countries, the outpatient care system makes patients wait and is poorly designed to care for acutely ill patients. First and most important, people increasing-ly chose EDs over other settings because of the convenience and the 24-7 compre-hensive care provided. Across the world, ED crowding has worsened for several reasons. Recent surveys in Germany have found increases in ED visits by 4% in 2006 and 8% in 2007, with an estimat-ed 12 million visits in 2007 however, there are no official national statistics on Ger-man ED visits. Similar to many oth-er industrialized countries, ED visit vol-ume and crowding are both increasing in Germany. A recent report detailed increased crowding across 16 countries, including Germany. A burgeoning literature has found associations between ED crowding and negative outcomes, such as poor quality care, medical errors, inpatient complications, and higher mor-tality rates.
ABSTRACT 1 Departments of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy, George Washington University, Washington 2 King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah Emergency department crowding A worldwide problem with evidence-based, but underused solutions Emergency department (ED) crowding is an increasing public health crisis in the U.S.
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