Emergency Department Boarding Stories

"We are a 28-bed ED and on a daily basis have 60+ patients in our department while consistently boarding around 20 patients. Wait times and the percentage of people leaving without being seen began to climb so as a result we have been forced to see patients from the waiting room.

I can’t remember the last time I got to consistently see and examine patients appropriately in a room/bed, and not from a chair. I have seen people code in the waiting room and admitted people to the ICU from the waiting room. It’s unsafe for patients and frankly unsafe for us too to have to go out into the waiting room dozens of times per shift."