Emergency Department Overcrowding: Towards a New Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Emergency Department overcrowding has been traditionally framed as a combination of input, throughput and output factors. This perspective summarises the limitations to this framework and the need for a new approach that includes post-acute care capacity and broader demographic shifts. The conversation, research and advocacy must shift from the hospital to structural problems outside of it that determine whether vulnerable patients can safely move after their acute care needs are completed.